March 18, 2026

Nigeria Records Oil Output Reduction By 9% to 1.483m bpd

…NUPRC shortlists investors for 50 oil blocks

By Ejiro Tarose

Nigeria’s oil output, including Condensate, has dropped month-on-month, MoM, by nine per cent to 1.483 million barrels per day, bpd in February 2026 from 1.627 million bpd in January 2026.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, disclosed this yesterday in its report – Crude Oil and Condensate production.

Also, on a year-on-year, YoY) basis, the report disclosed that the nation’s output dropped to 1.483 million bpd in February 2026 from 1.671 million bpd in the corresponding period of 2025, indicating a decrease of 11 per cent.

The report stated: “Lowest and Peak Combined crude oil and Condensate were 1.52 million bopd and 1.82 million bopd respectively. The average crude oil production represents 95% of the OPEC quota (1.5 mbpd).

“Daily average production was 1,544,345 barrels per day, comprising both Crude oil (1,421,960 bopd) and condensate (122,385 bopd).”

The Commission did not state the cause of the continued slide in Nigeria’s oil output but an industry leader who pleaded to be anonymous attributed it to aged facilities and oil theft.

He said: “With the one million programme of the NUPRC, we expected oil output to be rising at this time. The slide in production must be due to many factors, including aged facilities and oil theft in the Niger Delta.”

However, the development showed that the nation did not meet its 1.8 million bpd target of the 2026 budget even though the oil price has remained high at more than $100 per barrel.

The 2026 budget is anchored on conservative assumptions, including a crude oil benchmark of $64.85 per barrel, daily oil production of 1.84 million barrels, and an exchange rate of N1,400 to the dollar for the 2026 fiscal year.