(Bloomberg) -- Nigeria expects a 30% increase in crude and condensate output as authorities strengthen security around the nation’s oil infrastructure and incentives in the sector attract investment, even though the gain could cross its OPEC+ commitment to limit production.
Output will reach 2 million barrels a day before the end of the year from 1.54 million barrels in September, according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission. “As at today the country’s crude oil production plus condensate is 1.8 million barrels per day and we’re pushing, working with everyone to increase it to two million barrels a day before December,” Enorense Amadasu, executive commissioner for the Abuja-based agency said at a conference in Lagos on Monday.
While the regulator didn’t disclose the proportion of crude to condensate in its projection, a higher level would push output closer to or over the 1.5 million barrel a day quota that Nigeria agreed with OPEC+ not to exceed. The 23-nation group has implemented the production limits to stave off a surplus and shore up crude prices.
Not all members have followed the plan. The group’s leadership has pressed members like Iraq, Kazakhstan and Russia to fully implement output cuts pledged at the start of the year, and make additional reductions in compensation for over-producing.
Africa’s largest oil producer has stayed below its OPEC+ quota for more than two years due to a lack of investment and widespread theft and vandalism in the oil-rich Niger Delta. President Bola Tinubu’s government has made efforts to draw investors to the sector by offering tax breaks to producers as well as approving pending asset sales.
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The upstream regulator is looking to open bids for 31 oil and gas blocks spanning the country’s onshore and offshore acreage as part of measures to further increase production, Amadasu said, without giving a timeline. “These blocks have been carefully selected for its potentials to boost our reserves and stimulate economic activities,” he said.
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