President Bola Tinubu has directed all holders of dormant oil assets across the country to immediately reactivate them to ramp up dwindling crude oil production and crude oil revenue.
The directive was conveyed to oil and gas operators by the Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, on Tuesday, at the ongoing 2025 Nigeria Oil and Gas Energy Week in Abuja.
According to the minister, reactivation of the oil assets towards productivity will not only lead to growth in the oil sector but also sustain investments in capacity building.
He said the government was determined to maximise oil production by ensuring that only serious investors retain access to Nigeria’s hydrocarbon resources.
The Federal Government had set a crude oil production target of 2.1 million barrels per day, and roughly N84.67 trillion crude oil revenue in its 2025 budget. This is based on an oil price of $75 per barrel.
However, the country has been struggling with its oil production, with output hovering around 1.4 million barrels per day.
Crude oil and condensate production climbed to 1.63 million barrels per day in May from 1.61mbpd in April.
“To sustain growth in our oil industry, we must first sustain our investment in capacity building. The recent wave of asset divestments and the subsequent increase in production volumes underscore a critical truth: we have the indigenous capacity to grow this industry.
“I emphasised this point while declaring open the #NOGEnergyWeek, where I posed a central question to operators: What is the solution to ramping up production?
“This is not just a rhetorical challenge, it is a call to action, one that speaks to our collective responsibility in meeting both domestic energy needs and international commitments.
“In my address, I urged all operators to ensure every asset under them is active and productive. This is not a suggestion but a directive from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and it must be treated with the urgency and gravity it deserves,” Lokpobiri said.
“Therefore, I called on all stakeholders to embrace a new mindset, one that is value-driven and innovation-led.
“We must do something new, something bold, something that directly translates to increased production.
“With Nigeria now having met both her legal and financial obligations for the commencement of the African Energy Bank (AEB), we stand at the threshold of improved access to funding for investors and operators alike.
“This new financing window is expected to catalyse robust economic growth, not just for the energy sector, but for our nation as a whole,” he added.
Nigeria’s crude oil reserves are estimated at 37.28 billion barrels as of January 1, 2025, according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC). This includes 31.44 billion barrels of proven and probable (2P) crude oil and 5.84 billion barrels of condensate.
However, the country’s oil production levels have been affected by factors like pipeline vandalism, theft, and terminal shutdowns.
The challenges have not only led to shortfalls in locally targeted output, but Nigeria has also been unable to meet its OPEC’s 1.5 million barrels per day quota.
In May 2025, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority disclosed that Oil production in Nigeria decreased to 1,452,941 barrels of oil per day, representing a 2.20 per cent drop compared to the 1,485,700 bpd in April.
On Tuesday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) reported ₦6.008 trillion in revenue for May 2025.
The latest monthly report summary released by the national oil company on Monday revealed that May’s revenue is a slight rise from the ₦5.972tn recorded in April.
In Nigeria, Hydrocarbon is currently extracted from 323 developed fields located in both onshore and offshore terrains. These fields, which either contain crude oil, condensates, or natural gas reservoirs, are connected to 265 production processing stations, after which the stabilised Oil and Gas are exported via 31 export terminals.
The onshore processing infrastructures are linked to 8 crude oil/condensate and NGLs export terminals through pipelines that span 5,284 km. Some of these delivery pipelines connected to the five onshore export terminals are utilised by both the asset operators and third-party oil producers, for transportation, storage and lifting of crude oil blends through export or delivery to domestic refineries.
Tinubu’s directives came as the NNNPCL revealed its breakthroughs in tackling pipeline vandalism and ensuring full availability of key crude oil pipelines.
It, however, lamented that despite this, Nigeria’s crude production still lags behind government targets.
The state-owned firm on Tuesday announced that five of its major crude evacuation pipelines achieved 100 per cent availability between May and June 2025, a milestone in the ongoing efforts to stabilise Nigeria’s oil infrastructure.
The pipelines include the Trans-Niger Pipeline, Oando Brass Pipeline, Trans Forcados Pipeline, Trans Escravos Pipeline, and the Trans Ramos Pipeline, all of which traverse critical economic corridors in the Niger Delta and are essential for moving crude oil from wellheads to terminals for export.
