Nigeria’s oil and gas sector recorded a modest recovery in June 2025 as the country met its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) crude oil production quota for the first time in five months.
Data released by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) yesterday indicated that total daily oil and condensate production reached 1.697 million barrels per day (bpd).
Oil production stood at 1.505 million barrels per day (bpd), surpassing the OPEC allocation of 1.5 million bpd. Despite this, the figures reveal a continuing struggle to meet Nigeria’s more ambitious internal target.
The Federal Government had set a production benchmark of 2.06 million bpd in the 2025 budget, a figure considered critical for financing recurrent and capital expenditure amidst mounting fiscal pressures. The current output level, although a slight improvement, remains over 360,000 bpd short of the target.
The June production comprised approximately 1.505 million bpd of crude oil and 191,572 bpd of condensates, totalling 50.911 million barrels for the month. These numbers mark a marginal but encouraging uptick from previous months, where total liquids output struggled to cross the 1.6 million bpd threshold.
This is the first time since January 2025 that Nigeria has met its OPEC quota. In that month, production reached 1.538 million bpd before falling below required levels in subsequent months due to a combination of infrastructural bottlenecks, underinvestment, operational inefficiencies, and ongoing security issues in key oil-producing regions.
The resurgence in June suggests some level of operational stability, but it remains fragile and potentially unsustainable, given the prevalence of crude oil theft and reliance on barges.
June’s performance also reflected volatility in Nigeria’s upstream sector.
The NUPRC noted that crude and condensate production fluctuated between a low of 1.61 million bpd and a high of 1.82 million bpd during the month, showing how susceptible output remained to external shocks and operational disruptions.
Though terminals such as Forcados, Bonga, Qua Iboe, and Escravos maintained relatively steady output, gains at these key assets have not been sufficient to bridge the persistent gap between actual production and budgetary expectations.
