The Nigerian government has set a target to increase its oil production to two million barrels per day by the end of December 2023.This initiative aims to boost revenue generation, as oil remains a significant source of foreign exchange for the country.

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri made the disclosure at a meeting with Energy Correspondents in Abuja at the weekend.

He stated that the country was already recording a steady increase in its oil output, thus affirming the current daily production of 1.4 million barrels.

“For us to solve our problems we need to earn enough forex and a substantial part of our forex comes from oil. So it is our vision to lead the sector to increase production to earn more revenue to be able to fund strategic national projects.

” We are already steadily increasing production as at last month, it was 1.1 million/1.2million barrels bit today, we are doing 1.4million barrels per day. Our target is to see how we can reach 2 million barrels by the end of the year.

This can only be possible by engaging all the stakeholders in the sector and this is already yielding results that is why you see a steady rise in production we still have a long way to go but we have identified where the problem is, where we are getting the shortfall and in the next few weeks, we will be able to tell you how far we have gone,” he said.

Lokpobiri stressed that some of the problems bedeviling the sector have been identified, adding that these would be addressed.

“I have had the opportunity to engage with all the stakeholders, IOCs, oil marketers, those in the midstream and those in the downstream, local refiners, we are addressing their problems one after the other.

The government is working with stakeholders in the oil sector to identify and address issues that have led to production shortfalls.