The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has begun expanding its Joint Venture (JV) partnerships as part of a renewed strategy to deepen investment in oil exploration, raise crude output and meet production quotas set by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
The company said it is intensifying collaboration with existing and new partners from 2025 into 2026 to improve production performance, maximise infrastructure uptime and sustain high facility maintenance standards across its asset portfolio.
Nigeria’s push comes amid persistent struggles to meet its OPEC+ production targets, which have taken a toll on government revenues. Industry reports estimate that the country lost about $1.31 billion in gross revenue over the past year due to under-production.
Between January 2025 and January 2026, Nigeria’s cumulative output shortfall is estimated at 18.12 million barrels. At an average official price of $72.08 per barrel for the country’s flagship Bonny Light crude, the lost volumes translate to approximately $1.31 billion in forgone earnings, underscoring the scale of the challenge facing Africa’s top oil producer.
Nigeria has struggled for several years to consistently meet its allocation under the OPEC+ agreement. In 2025, the country exceeded its quota only in January, June and July, falling short in the remaining months.
The sharpest deficit was recorded in September 2025, when output dropped to about 1.39 million barrels per day (bpd)—roughly 110,000 bpd below the OPEC+ ceiling, according to industry analysis.
Beyond missing its OPEC+ targets, Nigeria also failed to achieve its own production goals last year. However, the NNPCL has outlined ambitious plans to reverse the trend and ramp up output through 2030.
Speaking in November 2025, the company’s Executive Vice President for Upstream, Udy Ntia, said Nigeria aims to raise oil production to 2 million bpd within the next two years, with a longer-term target of 3 million bpd by 2030.
Despite these plans, Nigeria’s average daily crude oil production in 2025 stood at around 1.5 million bpd, about 500,000 bpd below the government’s target for the sector.
Official data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) showed that there were 40 active drilling rigs in the country at the end of 2025, while OPEC figures put Nigeria’s active rig count at 18 rigs in November, highlighting discrepancies in industry statistics and the operational hurdles still facing the sector.
Analysts say the success of NNPCL’s expanded JV strategy will be critical if Nigeria is to close its production gap, stabilise revenues and reclaim its position within OPEC as a reliable quota-compliant producer.
