Market News

ABUJA, Sept 12 (Reuters) – Nigeria reduced its crude oil losses to 9,600 barrels per day by July, marking the lowest level since 2009, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) said on Friday.

The figure represents a significant drop from the 102,900 bpd lost in 2021, the highest in more than two decades.

The NUPRC said the progress was thanks to collaboration with security agencies, private contractors and host communities, as well as regulatory reforms such as metering audits.

Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, has long had to contend with oil theft, pipeline vandalism and ageing infrastructure, which have eroded government revenue and discouraged foreign investment in the sector.

Oil legislation enacted in 2021 to overhaul the regulatory framework, improve transparency and attract capital into upstream and midstream operations, has helped enforcement and infrastructure protection, the commission said.

Daily production stood at 1.71 million barrels in July, comprising 1.507 million barrels of crude oil and 204,864 barrels of condensates.

In a separate development, Nigeria’s midstream and downstream gas infrastructure fund has signed a preliminary agreement with Afreximbank on $500 million of funding over the next four years for investments in gas infrastructure, the government said on social media platform X.

Nigeria has been turning to gas as an alternative fuel after it scrapped a popular but costly subsidy on petrol. That move sent petrol pump prices higher, drawing criticism from motorists and from businesses that use petrol to generate their own power.

(Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Editing by Chijioke Ohuocha and David Goodman)