THE Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Chief Timipre Sylva has stated that Nigeria will continue to make every effort to reach its Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) crude oil production quota of 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of May 2022.
The minister stated this a day after OPEC members decided to keep their production cuts mutually agreed upon in order to preserve market stability.
The minister noted in a statement released today by his spokesman, Horatius Egua, that rather than a shortage of crude oil producers, pipeline vandalism, is to blame for Nigeria’s inability to satisfy the current OPEC quota.
Sylva said, “Once we are able to build enough confidence in the security of the pipelines, they (producers) will then be able to inject into the pipelines once again and once that happens, we will be able to meet up with our OPEC quotas. That is where we are going and the early signals are there that we are making very good progress,”
He was optimistic about increased refined product capacity, with the Dangote refinery opening up next year and the government’s 410,000 barrel capacity refineries being renovated.
“But I believe that even before the third quarter of next year we should be able to exit the importation of refined products,” Sylva said.
He stated further that Nigeria should be prepared for other oil discoveries outside the Niger Delta region in response to the discovery of crude oil in Kolmani between the states of Bauchi and Gombe.
