Nigeria’s Oil Production Will Increase, Assures Minister Heineken Lokpobiri

The newly appointed minister of state (oil), and petroleum resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, has assured Nigerians that the country will witness a sustainable increase in oil production.

It was reported in June that Angola has taken over Nigeria's position as Africa's highest crude oil producer. In addition, Nigeria dropped by one more position earlier this month as Libya took the second position in oil production.

To counter this, the new minister, while addressing Nigerians on Monday, said that he will be spend more time on the ground and work with the stakeholders to ensure that oil production is increased again.

"I have got more energy, and I have come to utilize that energy to revamp the petroleum sector," he added, Vanguard reported. "I am here with one agenda, which is to increase oil production and in order to increase it, we need to work together to achieve results."

"I am here to provide the leadership so that we can go to the Creeks and resolve all the problems."

Ekperipe Ekpo, who serves as minister of state (gas), and petroleum resources, also assured Nigerians he will work tirelessly to ensure that the country witnesses economic growth.

"With the removal of fuel subsidy the enormous responsibility of providing an alternative to fuel lie on the ministry," he said, noting that his immediate strategy includes utilization of CNG for the mass transit sector and associating power generating infrastructure.

"This will support the economy in many ways including scaling down cost of transportation which will cause multiplier effects, lower food cost and reverse inflationary trend leading to measurable improvement in living conditions of Nigerians."

Ekpo blamed the post-COVID-19 situation and ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict for the global gas industry imbalance. However, he assured that if everyone worked together, then Nigeria would succeed.

Angola's oil production surpassed that of Nigeria in April, as in the third quarter of 2022 operators of the Trans Niger pipeline and the Forcados export terminal closed their facilities for repairs.

The closure of the production facilities has become a major reason for this sharp drop from 1.1 million barrels per day in the second quarter to below one million barrels per day in the third quarter.

Nigeria's oil production was slowly recovering earlier this year, but the oil workers' strike disrupted it again in April, when Angola produced 1.063 million barrels per day, and Nigeria was able to produce only 999,000 barrels per day.

Oil theft was another reason for the reduced oil production in Nigeria.