KEY POINTS
- NNPC’s E&P arm reached 355,000 barrels a day on 1 December, its highest output since 1989 and a 52 percent rise from 2023 levels.
- The company attributes the milestone to stronger systems, leadership discipline and a shift toward sustainable operational practices.
- Senior executives say the achievement improves investor confidence and brings Nigeria’s long-delayed national production targets closer to reality.
Nigeria’s upstream ambitions received an unexpected lift at the start of December as NNPC E&P Limited, the flagship exploration and production arm of NNPC Limited, pushed its crude output to 355,000 barrels a day.
The figure, logged on the first day of the month, is the company’s strongest daily performance since 1989 and marks a rare moment of upward momentum for a sector long weighed down by instability and ageing infrastructure.
The latest numbers, disclosed in Abuja by Andy Odeh, Chief Corporate Communications Officer at NNPC, show a company that has been steadily gathering pace.
Average daily production at NEPL has climbed sharply over the last two years, rising from about 203,000 barrels a day in 2023 to 312,000 in 2025.
The 52 percent increase is being held up within the corporation as evidence that the wider reforms under way are beginning to bite, particularly in areas of discipline, asset optimisation and field development planning.
Odeh said the December milestone was not accidental. He linked it to a tightening of operational systems and a leadership push aimed at bringing production closer to the country’s long-stated but often elusive targets. “With strengthened processes and a more focused workforce, the upstream sector can finally show what is possible,” he noted.
NNPC leadership says the latest output record signals that long-term national targets are returning to the realm of the achievable
For years, successive administrations have floated lofty production ambitions, including a national target of two million barrels a day by 2027 and three million by the end of the decade. Those goals have struggled to gain traction amid theft, vandalism and a declining investment climate.
But Engr. Bashir Bayo Ojulari, Group CEO of the state oil company, said this week that the NEPL result offers something more tangible than rhetoric. It suggests, he said, that the “machinery of production” is now being operated with the commercial discipline needed to produce consistent results.
According to Ojulari, the climb to 355,000 barrels does more than boost output. It sends a signal to partners and investors that Nigeria’s energy sector is attempting to recover credibility. “This is proof that the revival of Nigeria’s energy fortunes is no longer theoretical,” he said. “The building blocks are being laid in real time.”
His views were echoed by Udy Ntia, Executive Vice President in charge of the upstream division, who argued that the achievement must be understood beyond the headline number. He warned against short-term tactics that deliver easy gains but undermine long-term stability.
