Nigeria is set to produce additional 225,000 barrels per day, bpd, as Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited, SNEPCo, has completed the 2022 Turnaround Maintenance, TAM, of the Bonga floating production storage and offloading, FPSO.

The FPSO was shut down on October 18, 2022, due to the statutory inspections, recertifications and other critical asset integrity restoration activities.

In a statement, yesterday, the company confirmed that the TAM was completed on November 9, 2022, adding the commissioning and start-up activities are currently in progress.

It stated: "SNEPCo is pleased to announce that the 2022 TAM of the Bonga floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) has been completed.

"The 225kbopd capacity FPSO was shut down on October 18, 2022, to carry out statutory inspections, recertifications and other critical asset integrity restoration activities.

"The 2022 TAM which was originally planned for 30 days was completed in 22 days on November 9, 2022, thanks to the excellent front-end planning and flawless execution.

"Commissioning and start-up activities are in progress and will culminate in ramp up of oil and gas production in the coming days."

However, in its latest report obtained by Vanguard, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, said that Nigeria's dwindling average oil output, including condensate, dropped Year-on-Year, YoY, by 7.4 per cent to 1.37 million barrels per day, mb/d in the first 10 months (January - October) 2022, from 1.48 mb/d in the corresponding period of 2021.

This showed a shortfall of 317,940 barrels when juxtaposed against the 1.69 mb/d, which the 2023 budget was based on at $70 per barrel.