The Minister of State for petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu has just revealed (more like guessed) that Nigeria’s crude oil production is now close to 1.9mbpd up from less than a million a couple of months ago. Kachikwu was speaking at the inaugural meeting of the National Council for Hydrocarbon in Abuja.
“In terms of crude oil output, we are still not where we should be. These days, I am always conscious about giving figures so that I do not attract attention unnecessarily.
“Obviously, the Forcados incident did impact us. My guess is that we are moving closer to 1.9 million barrels per day at this point. We are still managing the issue.”
It appears we are now in the guessing game and can’t complain much provided his guess is spot on. The National Bureau of Statistics reported last week that Nigeria’s oil GDP (Currently in a recession) contracted by about 22%. Nigeria needs to meet it’s crude oil production target if the industry is ever going to get out of the recession. With oil exports down to as low as 55% of government revenues, Nigeria urgently needs to avoid further pipeline bombings in the Niger Delta.
