Ahmadu Kida-Musa, deputy managing director (deepwater) at Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (Total), says the Egina oilfield is as at Wednesday producing 60,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).
This is 140,000 barrels below the expectations of President Muhammadu Buhari, who in his 2019 budget speech said he expects Egina to add 200,000 barrels per day to Nigeria’s production numbers.
Speaking during a presentation on the success recorded on the deepwater project thus far, Egina DMD said output will hit 200,000 bpd by March.
This may impact negatively on the 2019 budget, which had factored in 200,000 barrels from Egina in its revenue projections.
While presenting the 2019 budget, President Buhari told the joint session of the national assembly that the executive had set oil production benchmark at 2.3 million barrels per day — as it was in 2018.
The president, however, acknowledged that Nigeria did not produce as much as the budgetary benchmark in 2018, but expressed optimism for 2019.
“In 2018, average oil production up to end of the third quarter was 1.95 mbpd, as against the estimated 2.3 mbpd for the entire year,” Buhari had said.
Despite producing just 1.95 million barrels per day for the better part of 2018, the president said Egina will come on stream and add 200,000 barrels per day to Nigeria’s production capacity.
“With regard to the oil and gas sector, crude oil production continues to increase steadily towards budgetary targets and will receive a further boost when the 200,000 barrels per day Egina oil field starts operations,” he added.
Nigeria’s oil production levels for 2019 is still below budget benchmark.
