Sam Ikeotuonye
Lagos — The Society of Energy Editors, SEE, has forecast increased oil production for Nigeria in the third quarter, Q3, of this year, covering the period July to September.
The forecast is part of the projections contained in the society’s Third Quarter 2024 Outlook for Nigeria Energy Sector released at the weekend in Lagos.
It is the second edition of the Outlook for 2024, following the Second Quarter Edition released earlier in the year by the society.
According to the projections, the increased oil production for Nigeria in the third quarter of the year will result from new oil fields coming online and ongoing efforts to revamp existing fields to boost output.
The society also predicted increased confidence in the Nigerian oil and gas sector in the third quarter as it said the management of the 2024 marginal fields bid round by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, would impact investor confidence.
It listed possible challenges for the nation’s upstream oil and gas sub-sector in the quarter under review to include security issues in the Niger Delta, ongoing divestments by oil majors, lack of investments, decaying infrastructure, poor governance structure, and poor implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA.
In the downstream petroleum sun-sector, the projections are that the nation’s refineries will operate at limited capacity due to unending maintenance and upgrades while fuel imports will remain high, putting pressure on the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
The society also projected that “with fuel sold at different prices across the country in line with subsidy removal, price hike could hit 300 percent in some states compared to the same time in 2023.”
It also maintained that with the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board, NCDMB’s continued domiciliation efforts, increased local participation is expected in the oil and gas industry.
It, however, warned that “the management of the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund by the Bank of Industry could suffer constraints owing to political interference,”’ as it stressed that political interference could “hobble the gains attained” so far in the administration of the fund.