By Adewale Sanyaolu
The Minister of Petroleum Resources (Oil), Mr. Heineken Lokpobiri and the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mr. Bayo Ojulari, appear to be on a collision course over the country’s daily oil production target.
Speaking at the 2025 Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG) Conference in Abuja yesterday, themed “Accelerating Energy Progress Through Investment, Global Partnerships and Innovation”, Ojulari fired the first shot when he declared that the company is working towards a daily oil production target of two million barrels per day (bpd) by 2027.
However, the 2027 target did not sit well with Lokpobiri, who fired back that the Ministry is already working towards achieving a two million bpd oil production target by the end of 2025.
As such, the Minister said he cannot afford to wait until 2027.
He added that the Ministry has an ambitious target and cannot afford to derail.
The Minister also decried the actions of some MDAs that issue directives negatively impacting activities in the oil and gas sector without clearing with his office.
He noted that some of these policies rolled out by various MDAs are setbacks to investment and growth in the industry.
Lokpobiri, at the 2025 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) held in May in Houston, Texas, said the federal government had set an ambitious target of 2.5 million bpd oil production for the new management of NNPC Limited by year-end.
The Minister said while President Bola Tinubu gave the new NNPC management a mandate to grow oil production to two million barrels by this year, he had increased the target to 2.5 million bpd.
On oil production progress, Ojulari disclosed that, for the first time in a long while, the nation enjoyed 100 percent crude oil pipeline availability throughout June 2025.
He said the feat, made possible through industry-wide security interventions led by the NNPC, helped to boost crude oil production.
He, however, called for more investments to further boost production, adding that NNPC Ltd has been able to turn the narrative around by consistently meeting its cash-call obligations to joint venture operations.
He said the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) has placed NNPC Ltd in a strong position to live up to its responsibility of leading the industry in financing projects.
On his vision for NOG 2025, he said he would like the conference to transition from a talk shop to one where performances are celebrated and investment deals are closed.
He also announced that the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline has successfully crossed the River Niger, boosting hopes of the project’s completion by Q4 2025.
He said the feat was achieved through effective and innovative contract reengineering and industry collaboration.