TheCable

Nigeria produced 45.59 million barrels of oil through marginal fields from August 2020 to July 2021 — the lowest yield from various production arrangements.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited said this in its latest financial and operations report for August 2021.

Marginal fields are smaller oil blocks developed by indigenous companies, and they have not been exploited in at least the last ten years. These fields are often discovered by international oil companies (IOCs) but remain inactive due to their decision to withdraw from further production activities.

In May 2021, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) — now NUPRC — had completed the first successful bid programme after 18 years.

Over 600 companies had applied to be pre-qualified for the bid rounds of 57 marginal fields, which began on June 1, 2020.

Other arrangements through which Nigeria produces its oil are joint ventures (JVs), production sharing contracts (PSCs), alternative funding (AF) and through the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of the NNPC.

Under JVs, Nigeria produced 172 million barrels of oil for the period under review. PSCs contributed 240 million barrels, and 59.4 million barrels produced under alternative funding, and NPDC produced 58.19 million barrels.

The total production culminated in 575.28 million barrels from August 2020 to July 2021, with an average daily production of 1.58 million barrels.  

In July 2021, a total of 47.55 million barrels of crude oil and condensate were produced, representing an average daily production of 1.53 million barrels. 

Condensate is a mixture of light liquid hydrocarbons produced as a byproduct during hydrocarbon drilling. 

According to the report, July 2021 production figure comprises 38.75 barrels (1.22 mbd) of crude, pure condensate of 6.79m barrels and spiked condensate of 1.99m barrels.