The kick-start of oil production from the Ikike Field by French oil and energy giant, TotalEnergies would jack up Nigeria’s oil production by additional 50,000 barrels per day (BPD) by the end of 2022.
The company, in a press release yesterday announced the start of production from the IKike field and also affirmed that it will deliver peak production of 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by the end of 2022.
According to TotalEnergies, the Ikike project will leverage the existing Amenam offshore facilities to keep costs low while also minimizing greenhouse gas emissions.
The company stated that “it is pleased to start production at Ikike, which was launched a few months before the covid pandemic, and whose success owes a lot to the full mobilization of the teams. By tapping discoveries close to existing facilities, this project fits the Company’s strategy of focusing on low-cost and low-emission oil projects.”
While this project will cause an uptick in Nigeria’s oil production capacity by the end of 2022, meeting OPEC’s oil production quota remains a herculean task, following the 1.5 percent increase in Nigeria’s August 2022 oil production quota by the international oil organization.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, raised Nigeria’s August 2022, oil production quota to 1.826 million barrels per day (mb/d), from 1.799 mb/d in July 2022.
Nigeria’s crude oil production capacity has remained constrained by many factors like oil theft, pipeline vandalism, and illegal refining, causing the country to lose millions of barrels of crude oil.
According to data from OPEC, crude oil production in Nigeria stood at 1.238 million barrels per day (bpd) in June 2022. If the constraining factors bedeviling crude oil production in the country remain the way they have been, Nigeria could record a 546,000 b/d production deficit by August.
What You Should Know
- Crude oil theft increased to a daily average of 108,000 barrels in the first quarter of 2022 from 103,000 barrels in 2021, according to Gbenga Komolafe, head of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.
- Nigeria has not been meeting its OPEC oil production quota to oil theft, pipeline vandalism, and illegal refining. However, the country is putting security measures in place and also setting up a dedicated court to combat the problem.
