Nigeria has once again failed to meet its crude oil production quota as set by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), according to a review of the organisation’s latest monthly report.
The report shows that the country produced an average of 1.401 million barrels of crude oil per day, below the stipulated OPEC quota of 1.5 million barrels daily for member countries.
Production for the third quarter of 2025 averaged 1.444 million barrels per day, representing a decline from the second and first quarters of the year.
In the second quarter, production averaged 1.48 million barrels daily, while the first quarter recorded an average of 1.46 million barrels daily.
According to OPEC, Nigeria’s crude oil production stood at 1.39 million barrels per day in September 2025, down from 1.43 million barrels in August and 1.50 million barrels in July.
Further analysis shows that production in June 2025 was 1.50 million barrels daily; May, 1.45 million; April, 1.48 million; and March, 1.40 million. Other figures include February 2025 with an average of 1.46 million barrels daily, January 2025 with 1.53 million barrels, and December 2024 with 1.48 million barrels.
Of the ten months reviewed (between December 2024 and September 2025), Nigeria failed to meet OPEC’s 1.5 million-barrel-per-day quota on seven occasions.
Crude oil production has remained constrained by several factors, including sabotage, pipeline vandalism, and poor management of the oil sector.
These challenges have continued to prevent the country from meeting its production targets despite possessing the capacity to produce more.
Industry experts have urged the government to intensify efforts to tackle these issues, warning that persistent shortfalls in crude production could undermine Nigeria’s revenue generation and economic growth.
Nigeria has also struggled to meet local refinery demand for crude oil, SaharaReporters earlier reported.
This comes as the Federal Government disclosed that a total of 67,657,559 barrels of crude oil were supplied to local refiners for processing between January and August 2025.
The figure, confirmed by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), underscores ongoing challenges in closing the crude allocation gap facing domestic refineries despite the country’s rising production levels.
Speaking in Abuja, the Head of Media and Strategic Communications at the NUPRC, Eniola Akinkuotu, said the crude allocation was made in line with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 and the Domestic Crude Supply Obligation policy.
“A total of 67,657,559 barrels were delivered to local refiners between January and August this year. All refiners got that amount within the eight-month period,” Akinkuotu stated.
According to a document seen by SaharaReporters and published by the NUPRC, an estimated total of 123.4 million barrels was projected to be required by local refineries between January and June. The daily requirement was put at 770,500 barrels, while the monthly need was forecast at 23.8 million barrels.
With 67.7 million barrels made available to domestic refineries between January and August, it means that over 55.8 million barrels required for local consumption (based on NUPRC’s January–June estimates) were not supplied. This indicates that the Nigerian government was unable to provide at least 45 percent of the crude oil required domestically.
Previously, the media reported that Nigeria’s foreign trade statistics for the first and second quarters of 2025 showed that the country imported fuel worth N4.13 trillion between January and June 2025.
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