NNPC vows to increase production as Brent crosses $105/barrel

BRENT, the crude against which Nigeria’s oil is priced, crossed the $105/barrel price on Tuesday, as it rose to the highest price ever recorded since about 14 years following the ongoing war in Ukraine after it was invaded by neighbouring Russia.

In order to gain from the rising price of crude, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited on Tuesday vowed to increase Nigeria’s oil production, as the country had not been meeting its OPEC crude oil production quota lately.

Early last month, OPEC increased Nigeria’s crude oil production target for the month of March despite the fact that the country had been missing its approved monthly output targets.

OPEC raised Nigeria’s oil production target for March 2022 to 1.718 million barrels per day, indicating a marginal increase from the 1.701 million barrels per day target that was approved for Nigeria in February.

Nigeria missed its crude oil output target for January 2022, pumping 1.46 million barrels per day against a target of 1.683 million bpd as approved by OPEC.

Since the war began in Ukraine, crude oil (Brent) price had kept climbing, as it moved up to $106.27/barrel on Tuesday, rising by $8.3 or 8.47 per cent when compared to its cost the previous day.