According to Reuters news agency, Nigeria’s oil production, which fell to about 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), has risen to 1.9 million bpd in the last week. Garba Deen Muhammad, a spokesman for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), made this known to the agency.
“Production has increased because we are making repairs to damaged pipelines and installations. And we have not had any major attacks in recent times,” said Garba Deen Muhammad.
Over the past month, Nigeria has been battling with constant attacks on oil facilities and pipelines by a militant group known as the Niger Delta Avengers. These attacks affected Nigeria’s oil production, which was at 2.2 million barrels per day before the attacks.
Before the barrage of attacks, the country was already reeling from the effects of the fall in oil price, which meant it was not accruing as much revenue as it used to from the sale of crude. While trying to come to terms with the oil situation, China’s economic slowdown began to affect the price of commodities globally as well, worsening the condition of the Nigerian economy. This forced several foreign investors to shut down operations in the country including businesses such as United Airlines and Truworths. In response to this, the Central Bank of Nigeria put in stringent policy measures in order to save the Naira from depreciating against the Dollar, however, this was not effective as the troubled country is currently headed for a recession.
As a result of the incessant attacks by Niger Delta militants, Nigeria lost its position to Angola as Africa’s top crude oil producer. However, this recent announcement is good news for the country as it would be able to benefit from the recent increase in price of oil to $48 by generating more revenue for itself.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, is also working to ensure that Nigeria’s oil industry becomes attractive once again by going to countries which have huge capacities to put money in the oil sector. He is currently in China to lead a major road show to raise about $50bn in investments for oil projects in Nigeria. He also signed a potential deal worth $8.5bn with China North Industries Group Corporation.
