H.E. Timipre Sylva, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, expressed confidence that Nigeria will reach its 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) crude oil production target by the end of May 2023 in a statement released by his spokesperson, Horatius Egua.

This comes a day after OPEC members agreed to maintain their output cuts to preserve market stability. He attributed Nigeria’s failure to reach its quota to oil theft and pipeline sabotage. According to reports, crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism cost Nigeria daily losses of up to 400,000 barrels of crude oil, valued at $40 million.

The situation compelled the federal government to contract with private security firms to safeguard the pipelines. The minister expressed optimism that the government’s investment in pipeline security would pay off and that the nation would begin fulfilling its OPEC quota.

The statement read: “Once we are able to build enough confidence in the security of the pipelines, they (producers) will then be able to inject into the pipelines once again and once that happens, we will be able to meet up with our OPEC quotas. That is where we are going and the early signals are there that we are making very good progress.”