The group managing director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Andrew Yakubu, said local crude oil production has reached an all-time high of 2.7 million barrels per day (mbpd).

He disclosed this yesterday in a message on the NNPC Day at the ongoing Lagos International Trade Fair organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in Lagos.

Yakubu was represented by Mr. Isiaku Abdulahi, the managing director of National Engineering and Technical Company (NETCO).

He said that NNPC has been able to maintain crude oil production above the budgeted production level of 2.48 mbpd.

It would be recalled that the 2013 budget was based on 2.53 million barrels per day crude oil production.

"Factors that are responsible for these desired outcomes include the sustained amnesty programme of the government and the re-entry into previously abandoned assets by NNPC.

The ongoing efforts at increasing the nation's crude oil reserves in the inland sedimentary basins, especially in the Chad Basin are also being sustained," he said.

Yakubu said, in the last couple of years, the NNPC had engaged itself in a process of transformation to become more competitive across the globe and gain a fair share of the market.

The NNPC boss said that the corporation had continued to sustain petroleum products supply nationwide "notwithstanding the occasional hiccups due to labour action and vandalism of crude oil and product pipelines".

He said that the recently concluded recruitment exercise in which the NNPC focused on enlisting the services of technical hands "exemplified our commitment to have the right set of staff".