By Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has disclosed that Nigeria’s oil production on a month-on-month basis dropped by two percent from 1.547million barrels per day (mbpd) in February 2023 to 1.517 mbpd in March 2023.
However, despite the drop, NUPRC said Nigeria produced about 70 percent of its 1.8mbpd OPEC quota in the first quarter of 2023, which is a significant improvement from what was obtainable last year.
The Commission explained that the drop in production has been mainly attributed to crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta, as well as years of underinvestment in the petroleum sector.
According to NUPRC, the government is working towards meeting its OPEC crude oil production quota of 1.8 million bpd by the end of May.