The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has said that the country’s crude oil production rose to 1,235,317 million barrels per day for December 2022.
This is stated in the commission’s oil production status report for December 2022, released on Sunday, January 8 and seen by Nairametrics.
More details on this: The report shows that the crude oil production rate for the month under review was at 1,235,317 when compared to the November 2022 rate of 1,185,604.
- The report also reveals that the blended condensate rate for the period rose to 47,913 from 40,691 in November 2022.
- Meanwhile, unblended condensate rates declined to 130,400 from 187,799 recorded in November 2022.
- The addition of crude oil production to blended and unblended condensates amounted to 1,413,631 million barrels per day for December 2022. This is a decline from the November 2022 rate (inclusive of crude oil, blended and unblended condensate) at 1,414,093 million barrels per day.
- The crude oil production rate in December 2022 was the highest production level since March 2022 when the rate was 1,237,573 million barrels per day.
- Also, for December 2022, crude oil production stood at 38,294,836 million barrels.
- Blended condensates stood at 1,485,313, while unblended condensates stood at 4,042,406, making a total of 43,822,555 million barrels.
The menace of crude oil: The report shows that for the better part of April to September 2022, the country struggled with crude oil theft to a point where the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited collaborated with security agencies to fight against the menace in the South-south region of the country. However, the figures from December 2022 show that the efforts are bearing some fruit.
Other forms of losses: In December 2022, the Chief Upstream Investment Officer at the NNPC Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS), Bala Wunti said that during crude production, there are other kinds of losses aside from crude oil theft. He highlighted the three types of losses as follows:
- Engineering losses which nobody accounts for as it is a part of the engineering process
- Actual losses where hydrocarbons are produced but get stolen
- Opportunity losses arise because operators are unable to produce what was initially planned.
For the record: In December 2022, the Chief Upstream Investment Officer at the NNPC Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS), Bala Wunti said Nigeria’s crude oil production as of December 6 was at 1.59 million barrels per day.
Nigeria’s finance minister, Zainab Ahmed recently announced that the oil sector is no longer the major funder of the country’s budget. She highlighted the fact that the government expects 22% of projected revenues from oil-related sources, while 78% is expected from non-oil sources for the 2023 budget.