Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources
…Nigeria’s oil production will soon hit 2million as production currently stands at 1.745mbpd.
…Appealed to National Assembly over incessant summons of industry players.
…Nigeria has 200 tcf proven gas reserves.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has warned that the federal government will revoke Licences granted to oil field operators if they fail to embark on exploration at a given period of time.
He made this statement at the ongoing 2025 Nigeria Oil and Gas Energy Week in Abuja.
He said the government was determined to maximize oil production by ensuring that only serious investors retain access to Nigeria’s hydrocarbon resources.
He said the move would also enable the country meet its OPEC production quota and 2025 budgetary targets, hence the Federal Government has declared an end to the era where oil companies acquire field licenses and leave them dormant.
“The government would no longer tolerate operators without the technical and financial capacity to develop oil fields; such licenses would be withdrawn”, he said
The Minister said: “In our ongoing drive to boost national oil production, the Federal Government remains resolute in ensuring that maximum value is derived from upstream assets currently held by operators.
“This objective has taken on greater urgency as global financing for oil and gas projects continues to tighten, making it increasingly difficult for all operators to secure the capital needed to develop these assets.
“It is no longer acceptable for critical national resources to remain in the hands of companies that lack the technical or financial capacity to optimize them or worse, those who use such licenses merely as a lever to access scarce capital, only to divert it to unrelated ventures.
“Our oil and gas industry has witnessed far too many cautionary tales of this nature, and we must now draw a clear line”.
Lokpobiri said the government has engaged an international consultant to evaluate the 273 fees and rates faced by oil companies in the country to align them with international best practices.
The Minister also revealed that Nigeria is currently producing about 1.745 million barrels of crude oil per day (bpd) targeting to hit two million bpd by the end of 2025.
Lokpobiri said that the production target for 2025 budget was based on 2.06 million bpd, adding that it must ramp up production to hit two million.
“We can succeed when we work together to be strong enough to deliver.
“I urge the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.) to change its target ambition to producing above two million barrels by 2025,” he said.
He said that in 2023 when he was appointed as the minister, there was no investment for 10 years due to legal framework and other challenges.
He said that from 2023, the narratives changed and investments were recorded as a result of deliberate policies and reforms that worked, and absolute increase in investors confidence in Nigeria.
The minister also appealed to the National Assembly to reduce the number of summons of the IOCs and industry players for legislative hearing.
Also speaking at the oil industry event, the Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo said Nigeria had proven gas reserves of over 200 trillion cubic feet, yet value would only be created when resources were developed and utilised.
Ekpo said that through the Decade of Gas initiative, the country was focused on translating its vast gas wealth into tangible socio-economic benefits.
This, he said, included driving industrialisation, expanding power generation, increasing domestic Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) usage, deepening gas-to-transport adoption, and growing gas export capacity.
Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, Engr. Bashir Bayo Ojulari disclosed that the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline has successfully crossed the River Niger, boosting the hope of the project’s completion by Q4 2025.
Ojulari, who described the development as a significant milestone, said the feat was achieved through effective and innovative contract reengineering and industry collaboration.
He also disclosed that for the first time in a long while, the nation enjoyed 100% crude oil pipelines availability throughout June 2025.
He said the feat which was possible through the industry-wide security interventions led by the NNPC helped to boost crude oil production.
He however called for more investments to boost production, adding that NNPC Ltd has been able to turn the narrative around by consistently meeting its cash-call obligations to Joint Venture operations.
He said the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) has placed NNPC Ltd in a good position to live up to its responsibility of leading the industry in financing projects.
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