The challenges in the two fields contributed significantly to the reduction in national production during the month
By Moses Okorie
Nigeria maintained its run of exceeding its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) crude oil production quota in July 2026, recording output above the 1.5 million barrels per day target for the third consecutive month.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), in its latest production report, said the country averaged 1.505 million barrels of crude oil per day during the month.
When condensate production of 0.17 million barrels per day was included, Nigeria’s combined output stood at 1.67 million barrels daily.
The commission reported that national crude oil and condensate production peaked at 1.78 million barrels per day in July, while the lowest daily output was 1.57 million barrels.
Forcados Terminal led production during the month, with an average output of 322.34 thousand barrels per day.
It was followed by Bonny Terminal, which recorded 303.72 thousand barrels per day. Qua Iboe Terminal contributed 158.02 thousand barrels daily, while Escravos Oil Terminal averaged 131.41 thousand barrels.
Bonga was the fifth-highest producing stream, with an average daily output of 100.23 thousand barrels.
Despite the country’s continued compliance with its OPEC production allocation, the NUPRC disclosed that overall output declined by four per cent compared with the previous month.
The regulator linked the decline mainly to operational difficulties affecting production at the Erha and Akpo oil fields.
According to the commission, the challenges at the two fields contributed significantly to the reduction in national production during the month.
However, it said operations across other producing assets remained largely stable, with operators taking steps to minimise the impact of the disruptions.
“Routine production activities and crude evacuation operations were largely sustained across the sector,” the NUPRC stated.
The commission said efforts were ongoing to resolve the challenges at the affected fields and recover the disrupted production capacity.
It added that industry operators were also working to improve the reliability of oil assets and strengthen production performance in the coming months.
The NUPRC said the July figures highlighted the importance of effective asset management and the need for rapid intervention whenever operational problems threaten production.
It maintained that improving asset reliability and reducing disruptions would be critical to sustaining growth in Nigeria’s upstream petroleum sector.