Fox Petroleum will invest $7.5 billion in NNPCL over the next three years. This is according to a company statement issued on Monday, December 4.
The Guardian reports that India-based Fox Petroleum has said they will invest $7.5 billion in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) over the next three years. The announcement came from a statement signed by Yomi Sola Falana, the company’s Business Representative.
In that statement, the company mentioned that their decision was influenced by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to increasing Nigeria’s oil and gas production, amping up reserves, boosting the country’s income, creating lots of job opportunities for Nigerians, and aiding the growth of communities where they operate.
Fox Petroleum plans to use the money to help NNPCL grow following the new Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) that was recently put into action.
Nigeria’s oil production
Following a revised oil production quota of 1.5 million barrels per day, the country hopes to meet and even surpass the new quota as it has already made plans to increase production despite increasing levels of crude oil theft in the Niger Delta region.
The Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Energy, Ms. Olu Verheijen, has said in the recent past that the government is already implementing its plan to improve livelihoods and tackle insecurity in the Niger Delta to increase upstream oil investments – which is one of the major reasons why Nigeria has been battling reduced oil production levels in recent years.
Recall that back in 2000, Nigeria was producing about 2.15 million barrels of crude oil per day (mbpd). The following year, in 2001, that went up a bit to 2.26 mbpd.
Things got a bit shaky after that. In 2002, production dropped to 2.08 mbpd, then went up again to 2.23 mbpd in 2003, and hit a high of 2.52 mbpd in 2005.
But that peak didn’t last long. From 2006 to 2016, there was a gradual decline in production, and it went down to 1.89 mbpd by 2016. Although there were small improvements in 2017 and 2018 (reaching 1.96 mbpd and 2 mbpd respectively), the overall trend continued downward.
By 2022, Nigeria’s crude oil production had drastically fallen to just 1.45 mbpd. Things got even worse in August 2022 when the country hit a low point, producing only 972,000 barrels per day due to increased crude oil theft.
However, there was a slight uptick in September and October 2023, with Nigeria averaging around 1.5 million barrels per day, which includes condensate production.
