BY FESTUS OKOROMADU
The Federal Government says it has perfected plans to increase the country’s crude oil production to two million barrels per day and beyond by the end of the year.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, stated this while speaking with the Energy Correspondent Association on Friday in Abuja.
The Minister said the government was working assiduously to actualize the target as part of effort to realize economic prosperity of the nation.
“The reason why we are underperforming is because of insecurity and we are gradually tackling those problems.
“My sole agenda is to increase production, once we increase production, we will get more revenue for the country.
You know Nigeria is still more dependent on oil.
“Though the non-oil sector is also supporting the economy, a substantial part of our forex comes from oil.
“So, my ambition is to see how I can lead the sector to increase production so that we can get more revenue to deal with the fund and strategic rationale projects in the country,” he said.
Lokpobiri, who is optimistic of meeting the target, said the country was already witnessing steady increase in production, adding that as at last month it was 1.1 million barrels while currently it has increased to 1.3 – 1.4 million barrels per day.
“I get the reports from relevant authorities. Today, we are doing about 1.4 million barrels of crude. So, we are steadily increasing but our target is to see how we can get to two million barrels,” he said.
The Minister called on relevant stakeholders to cooperate with the President Bola Tinubu’s administration to tackle challenges in the sector, adding that he had been interacting with some of them, including the international oil companies and local producers.
He noted that the engagement with them was already yielding results.
“We have identified where the problem is and where we are getting the shortfall and we are already engaging them within the next few weeks, we will be able to give you how far we have gone in that direction,” he added.
He said some of the solutions might not be immediate but once identified there would be provision of a good framework to address those problems.
He said the government was bent on rebuilding the confidence of investors and rekindle the industry to become more competitive.
