To attract investments and grow outputs, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have restated their commitment to work together to achieve the nation’s aspirations in the oil industry.
Nigeria, one of the leading members of the OPEC, has a twin aspiration of increasing her daily oil production capacity from the current average of 2.3 million barrels to about 4 million barrels and national reserve from about 30 billion barrels to about 40 billion barrels.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) responsible for the regulation of the upstream petroleum industry says current average oil production stands at about 1.33 million barrels per day and 256,000 barrels of condensate, while national technical production capacity currently stands at 2.26 million. The country’s current OPEC quota is about 1.5 million barrels per day.
The Commission Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe, said at the NIES conference on Wednesday that closing the gap between the actual oil production capacity and the technical potential presents a window of investment opportunities for investors and a significant opportunity for Nigeria to unlock additional revenue streams, address the current foreign exchange gap and strengthen the country’s economic resilience.
However, the NNPC and OPEC agreed in Abuja to work together to brighten their chances of attracting fresh investments in the industry towards growing their oil production capacities.
The agreement was reached when the Secretary General of OPEC, Haitham al-Ghais, visited the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari, on Wednesday.
Speaking during the visit, al-Ghais, who was in Abuja to attend the 7th Nigera International Energy Summit (NIES) said OPEC was completely aligned with NNPC Ltd.’s vision and aspirations as captured in its payoff line: “Energy for Today, Energy for Tomorrow”
The OPEC president said the company’s pay-off line was its inclusive view of energy as opposed to the view pushed in some quarters that some sources of energy were bad.
In spite of the pushback on oil and gas, amid the quest for global energy transition, he said the world would still require about $14 trillion investments from now till 2035 to be able to meet global oil demand.
He urged the NNPC Ltd to do everything within its capacity to tap into that opportunity to raise its oil production, to continue to be a relevant and reliable source of energy to the world.
“We will continue to ensure that the crude oil market is stable. The global market has to be stable for Nigeria to be able to attract investors. If there’s volatility, if there’s no stability in the market, it will only create havoc for everybody, whether it’s a producer or consumer country. So, we will continue to do that in OPEC. We count on Nigeria’s support”, the OPEC scribe said.
In his remarks, Kyari said the NNPC Ltd was working very hard to recover lost production and provide the right fiscal environment to attract investments.
He expressed appreciation to OPEC Secretary General for his support to Nigeria, adding that NNPC Ltd would continue to support the organization in whatever way it could to realize its aspirations.
