Nigeria records 521m barrels of oil production in 2025, loses 3.33m to theft

By Onu Okorie

Nigeria recorded about 521 million barrels of crude oil production in 2025, while losing 3.33 million barrels to oil theft, valued at approximately $33.3m, according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

The commission disclosed this in its 2025 annual report released on Thursday, which detailed the country’s crude oil production, domestic supply, exports, oil theft and field development activities during the year.

The report, however, put the country’s total production of crude oil and blended condensate at 541.08 million barrels, based on quarterly figures, while unblended condensate production contributed another 48.52 million barrels.

It also revealed that about 66 per cent of the reported crude oil theft occurred in the fourth quarter of 2025, highlighting the concentration of production losses towards the end of the year.

A breakdown of the quarterly figures showed that Nigeria recorded 896,471 barrels of crude oil theft in the first quarter, while the second quarter recorded a negative 200,400 barrels, which the commission attributed to an excess volume arising from reconciliation.

The reported losses stood at 440,434 barrels in the third quarter before rising sharply to 2.19 million barrels in the fourth quarter, the highest quarterly volume recorded during the year.

On production, the NUPRC report showed that Nigeria produced 132.70 million barrels in the first quarter, increasing to 137.69 million barrels in the second quarter.

Production subsequently eased to 137.45 million barrels in the third quarter and 133.23 million barrels in the fourth quarter.

Beyond production and crude oil theft, the commission reported progress in processing field development plans aimed at expanding Nigeria’s oil and gas production capacity.

According to the report, the NUPRC processed 75 field development plan applications in 2025, comprising 58 applications received during the year and 17 carried forward from 2024.

Of the applications, 48 were approved, 10 rejected, while 17 remained under processing at the end of the reporting period.

The approved projects are expected to support the development of approximately 1.75 billion barrels of oil reserves, 104.48 million barrels of condensate reserves and 8.19 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves.

The projects are also projected to increase Nigeria’s production capacity by about 743,830 barrels of oil per day, 23,707 barrels of condensate per day and 3.09 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day.

The commission said the approved projects are expected to achieve first oil between 2026 and 2030.

It added that seven of the 48 approved field development plans were dedicated exclusively to non-associated gas development.

The latest figures come amid persistent concerns over crude oil theft, pipeline security and Nigeria’s ability to sustain production growth and meet its oil production targets.

While the planned field developments are expected to boost the country’s upstream capacity in the coming years, the reported losses underscore the continuing challenge of crude oil theft to Nigeria’s oil revenue and production ambitions.