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NUPRC says oil production rose from 1.46m barrels in Oct. 2024 to 1.8m barrels daily
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Commission targets 2.5m barrels per day by 2026 through deepwater projects and field reactivation
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Sustainability plan includes ending gas flaring by 2030 and cutting methane emissions by 60% by 2031
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has announced that the country is on track to achieve a crude oil production target of 2.5 million barrels per day by 2026.
NUPRC Chief Executive, Mr. Gbenga Komolafe, disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday at the 4th PENGASSAN and Labour Summit themed “Building a Resilient Oil and Gas Sector in Nigeria: Advancing HSE, ESG, Investment and Incremental Production.”
He stated that Nigeria’s oil production has increased from 1.46 million barrels per day in October 2024 to 1.8 million barrels per day, crediting recent Presidential Executive Orders under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 for cutting contracting delays, lowering investment risks, and spurring upstream projects.
Mr. Komolafe noted that the commission has advanced deepwater exploration, reactivated dormant oil fields, and adopted enhanced recovery techniques. He added that a Deepwater Technical Stakeholders’ Workshop recently outlined strategies to unlock over 810,000 barrels per day in new production.
He explained that the commission is implementing a cluster development strategy to reduce costs, optimise infrastructure, and build investor confidence.
On sustainability, the NUPRC boss said the commission’s Upstream Decarbonisation Framework is designed to eliminate routine gas flaring by 2030 and reduce methane emissions by 60 per cent by 2031. He stressed that Nigeria’s 210 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves remain central to the country’s energy transition.
Mr. Komolafe called for stronger collaboration among government, labour, and industry stakeholders, noting that resilience in the oil and gas sector requires deliberate action.
Also speaking, Mr. Jagie Baxi, Managing Director of ExxonMobil, highlighted four critical factors for boosting oil production: geology, cost, risk, and reward. He warned that natural decline in production, especially in deepwater fields, reduces output by about 15 per cent annually.
Mr. Baxi identified high drilling and operational costs as barriers to new investment and urged the government to introduce risk-adjusted incentives, strengthen collaboration, and address disputes affecting underperforming fields.
