The Federal Government announced that it is targeting to increase crude oil production to two million Barrels Per Day (bdp) and beyond by the end of the year.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Mr Heineken Lokpobiri, made the disclosure in a meeting with the Abuja Energy Correspondent Association on Friday in Abuja.
Lokpobiri affirmed that the government was working assiduously to ramp up crude oil production to two million bpd by December and beyond by the end of 2023.
“The reason why we are under-performing is insecurity and we are gradually tackling those problems.
“My sole agenda is to increase production, once we increase production, we will get more revenue for the country. You know Nigeria is still more dependent on oil.
“Though the non-oil sector is also supporting the economy, a substantial part of our forex comes from oil.
“So, my ambition is to see how I can lead the sector to increase production so that we can get more revenue to deal with the fund and strategic rationale projects in the country,” he said.
The minister said there was already an increase in production, and that as at last month it was 1.1 million barrels, while currently it had increased to 1.3 – 1.4 million barrels,” he added.
Lokpobiri, while urging relevant stakeholders to put hands on deck to tackle challenges in the sector, said he had been interacting with some of them, including the International Oil Companies and local producers.
He noted that the engagement with them was already yielding results.
“We have identified where the problem is, and where we are getting the shortfall and we are already engaging them within the next few weeks, we will be able to give you how far we have gone in that direction.
