Nigeria’s crude oil production in the first quarter of the year has risen to an average of 2.26 million barrels per day (bpd), 20.8 percent higher than the 1.87 million bpd of the last quarter of 2013, according to data released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics.

The upturn in crude oil production bolstered the country’s economy, with the growth rate of real GDP in the first quarter of 2014 rising to 6.21 percent as against the 4.45 percent recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2013.

The statistics bureau gave Nigeria’s economic growth expectation as 6.19 percent in 2014, up from 5.5 percent last year, thanks to the rising oil output. However, oil output of 2014 Q1 still falls short (by 1.3 percent) when compared to the average production of 2.29 million bpd in the corresponding period of 2013.

Nigeria continues to suffer large scale theft with a recent UK report putting the country’s losses from such at £7.2 billion ($12.27 billion) annually. Security challenges, among other factors also join to prevent the country from reaching its optimum estimated production capacity of 3.2 million bpd.

However The Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Andrew Yakubu is optimistic on the improvement of the country’s oil production levels. He stated that the Crude output bpd is expected to rise further as the government clamps down on oil theft and sabotage attacks on production facilities.