The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, has said Nigeria can achieve the production of three million barrels of oil per day in 2025.
Lokpobiri said this would include crude and condensates, adding that the country would raise production without having issues with the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Speaking at an energy conference in Lagos on Tuesday, Lokpobiri maintained that Nigeria and Africa would continue to invest in oil and gas as the solution to energy poverty.
“I know that until tomorrow, oil and gas is still the solution to our problems. Any way you look at it, the bulk of our revenue and our foreign exchange still comes from oil and gas,” he said.
Lokpobiri expressed satisfaction that the current administration was able to raise daily oil production from one million barrels per day to 1.8mbpd.
“When we came, we barely did a million barrels. Today, we are doing 1.8mbpd and we can do more. And those who are responsible for this are more local. And that’s why I’m saying that look, we need to come together and continue on this trajectory. Let’s finish the journey that we have made together. From a million barrels, we have achieved an 80 per cent addition.
“I want to see how we can do 2.5 to three million barrels this year. And we can do it. I was talking to someone and the person told me that the bulk of what we produce is condensate. But because we are putting the condensate and the crude in the same container, oil is now branded crude oil. If we properly dedicate some reservoirs in our terminals for condensate and dedicate all that to crude oil, we will do three million barrels.
“So, we are not having any problem with OPEC. We will be able to meet our local domestic oil supply obligations and the companies can also meet their own foreign obligations,” Lokpobiri noted.
Addressing members of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria, the oil minister reiterated, “You are leaders of the industry but please work with us as the government to see how we can provide that leadership that other African countries need in terms of local capacity. Our journey in Nigeria has not gotten to the finishing line. In fact, we have just started, please work with me and together, we can get to the destination.”
Lokpobiri called for collaboration among African countries to solve energy poverty.
According to him, most investors are avoiding Nigeria due to inconsistent government policies affecting their businesses.
“I believe that it is very important that we also try and create a very transparent and stable environment as African countries. That is where the investments will come. I’ve had an opportunity to engage global leaders and they say the problem with Africa, particularly Nigeria, is that you are not sure of what policy will come tomorrow.
“You may wake up one morning, they will come up with a cash pooling. Somebody who has nothing to do with oil and gas will wake up one morning and say that IOCs cannot spend their money for three months. It doesn’t happen anywhere. There has to be consistency. There has to be predictability.
“People who want to invest in Nigeria should know how to predict our environment. Otherwise, we will have a problem. Everybody wants to come to Nigeria. When everybody thinks about investment in Africa, they think about Nigeria first. But for us to sustain our leadership, we have to be predictive. We must also do things that are globally competitive,” he noted.
According to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Nigeria is planning to raise oil production above 2mbpd this year.
The country could not meet its 1.5mbpd OPEC quota throughout last year.
Factors such as vandalism, illegal oil theft, and lack of investments were blamed for dwindling oil production.
Babatunde Titilola @ThePUNCH
