2.5mbpd Oil Production Target: Lokpobiri Demands Clear, Time-bound Implementation Plan

The minister of state for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, on Wednesday called for a clear, time‑bound implementation plan to meet the federal government’s crude oil production target of 2.5 million barrels per day, saying immediate, coordinated action is needed

The Ministry of Petroleum Resources on Wednesday kicked off a two‑day management retreat in Abuja focused on turning policy commitments into measurable results and closing long‑standing gaps between plans and delivery across Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.

Delivering the keynote at the retreat, which brought together directors, agency heads and ministry staff, Lokpobiri, who stressed that durable gains depend on the civil service’s ownership of and a clear, time-bound roadmap, set a concrete production target and demanded a time‑bound implementation plan from civil servants to reach it.

“At the end of the day, I want to see on my table a clear framework on how we can build on what we have achieved. I want to see how we can do 2.5 million barrels a day,” he told attendees, urging officials to translate recent gains into sustained growth through coordinated policy, targeted investment and operational follow‑through.

Lokpobiri highlighted progress since his appointment nearly three years ago. He said daily oil output has risen to about 1.8–1.9 million barrels per day inclusive of condensate — a rise he described as “an over 80 per cent improvement” relative to earlier baseline figures — while gas production stands at around one billion cubic feet per day. He also noted a recovery in foreign‑exchange reserves to above $50 billion, the highest level in 17 years.

Despite those gains, Lokpobiri warned that Nigeria remains “nowhere where we want to be,” citing underexplored basins, decades of underinvestment in seismic and appraisal work, and limited exploration outside the Niger Delta.

Citing historical estimates of roughly 37 billion barrels and noting that only about 20–25 per cent of prospective hydrocarbon acreage has been explored, he pressed technical departments to produce implementation steps, timelines, and budgeted milestones that can be monitored. Key upstream priorities he listed included re‑entering shut or curtailed wells, accelerating drilling to offset natural decline (he warned of average annual decline in producing wells), and commissioning fresh seismic surveys to identify new reserves in land, salt and shallow‑water plays.

Both Lokpobiri and Oyekunle argued that institutional reforms and legal certainty are essential to attract capital.

The retreat was themed “Driving institutional performance and accountability in the petroleum sector for sustainable national development.”

In her welcome address, the permanent secretary of the ministry, Patience Oyekunle, challenged staff and agencies to strengthen planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting systems to meet targets under President Bola Tinubu’s mandate.

Oyekunle described the event as “a valuable opportunity to pause, reflect, learn, share experiences, and collectively chart a more effective course” toward meeting the administration’s priorities and stressed that performance points have been assigned across the presidency, ministerial leadership and permanent secretaries.

The permanent secretary pointed to recent measures such as the Central Resource Delivery Coordinating Unit (CRDCU) and the Quarterly Performance Assessment Framework as evidence of the government’s renewed focus on measurable outcomes and accountability. Lokpobiri added that investors from Japan, India, Europe and the United States have renewed interest, but cautioned that “capital is directed to where there is stability, capability and a stable legal framework.”

On her part, the director of Planning, Research and Statistics at the ministry, Kemi Ahmed‑Yusuf, presented a data‑driven roadmap for sector performance, identifying eight key deliverables and 45 performance indicators aligned to Group 100 Priority No. 4 — unlocking energy and natural resources for sustainable development.

Those deliverables include ensuring a steady national supply of petroleum products, boosting gas production for power and industrial use, timely issuance of oil prospecting and mining licences, increasing crude oil production to three million barrels per day, expanding local refined product output, strengthening Nigerian content, improving nuclear and radiation safety, and institutionalising regular citizen and stakeholder engagement.

Ahmed‑Yusuf urged delegates to close the gap between policy and delivery by adopting a single‑vision approach, naming implementation champions, and committing to evidence-based decision-making.

“Data is life,” she said, adding, “If we cannot measure it, we cannot fix it.” Each session of the retreat, she said, will end with decisions, and named champions will be responsible for implementation to prevent mandate overlap and speed up institutional responses.

The retreat’s agenda also addressed sectoral bottlenecks that continue to erode performance: crude theft, underinvestment, weak enforcement, project delays, cost indiscipline and regulatory gaps.