By Camillus Eboh
ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria’s state oil firm NNPC Ltd said on Sunday it had restored 275,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil production at its joint venture unit with Total Energies after negotiating an end to industrial action by workers.
NNPC said in a statement that an agreement to suspend the action had been signed between TotalEnergies, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association and the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, which represent senior and junior workers in the industry.
“The unions have agreed to suspend ongoing industrial action leading to immediate restoration of 275,000 barrels of oil per day production,” NNPC said.
NNPC did not disclose the nature of the dispute or the workers’ demands, which had not been previously announced.
Nigeria’s oil production stood at 1.49 million barrels per day in October, according to data from the petroleum regulator, still below the 2023 budget target of 1.69 million bpd.
Although production has been improving this year in Africa’s biggest oil producer, crude theft, illegal refining and lack of investment in the sector have hobbled output, which has remained below its OPEC quota of 1.74 million bpd.
That has led to fears that NNPC may struggle to supply crude to the 650,000 bpd Dangote Refinery, which has missed several targets to start production.
NNPC Ltd will supply the Dangote refinery with up to six cargoes of crude oil in December to be used in test runs, industry sources with knowledge of the matter have told Reuters.
(Reporting by Camillus Eboh; editing by Giles Elgood)
