"In recent times, there has been increase in the volume of crude oil production and decrease in oil theft."
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) says its focus is to exceed the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)'s oil production quota of 1.74 million barrels per day (bpd).
Its Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe, made the assertions shortly after he received an Award of Excellence from the Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Effurun in Delta State on Thursday evening.
Mr Komolafe, addressing journalists, said that the country's current crude oil production capacity was within the neighbourhood of 2.2 million bpd, which had already exceeded OPEC'S quota.
He said that with the current 2.2 million bpd, the country has the capacity to surpass the OPEC quota.
Mr Komolafe ascribed the capacity to the improvement in general security services in the country as well as the collaborative efforts of stakeholders in the oil and gas industry.
He said the collaboration would be sustained in a manner that would ensure that crude oil theft was brought down.
"In recent times, there has been increase in the volume of crude oil production and decrease in oil theft.
"This could largely be ascribed to the general security services in the country, as well as the collaborative efforts of the stakeholders in the oil and gas industry.
"The effort of the general security services, collaborations between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, the regulators and the private security services have helped to curtail oil theft and upscaled our production," he said.
Mr Komolafe said that the commission has the statutory mandate to increase the quantum of crude oil production in the country.
He noted that within the short time of its existence, the commission had received favourable feedback from the industry in terms of attracting investors' confidence in the industry.
"We have been able to provide clarity in the activities of the industry.
"No investor will invest in a situation where there is acrimony.
"So, the commission is keen and doing everything possible to attract investors into the upstream," Komolafe said.
The NUPRC chief executive said that human capital development was key to the development and optimisation of the nation's hydrocarbon resources.
He commended FUPRE for supporting the federal government in developing the needed human capital to help develop the hydrocarbon resources.
"We will support and collaborate with FUPRE to ensure that the university continues to turn out the best in terms of human capital that will help in the development of our upstream resources.
"In terms of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), we will continue to collaborate with the university in providing infrastructure so that the standard for which the institution is known will continue to be sustained," he said.
Mr Komolafe, while dedicating the award to the Board of the NUPRC and the commission's management, said it would spur him to do more.
Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor of FUPRE, Akpofure Rim-Rukeh, said that the university was established in 2007 and began academic activities in 2008.
Mr Rim-Rukeh said that the institution had made a lot of in-roads into achieving its objectives over the years.
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According to him, diversification is a good initiative by the federal government, but the oil industry is very relevant.
"The products that are coming out from the petrochemical industry today are awesome.
"We are prepared to reposition the oil industry; we are ready to face the challenges in terms of research and development," Mr Rim-Rukeh said.
On the NUPRC delegation were NUPRC Board Chairman, Isa Modibbo; Sabo Lamido, executive commissioner, Finance and Account; Ben Ogunnubi, coordinator, NUPRC, Warri office and Rose Ndung, executive commissioner, Exploration and Acreages and among others.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the award ceremony, which also had Seinye Briggs, Greg Ugbeifun and Kestin Pondi, among others as recipients, was powered by the African Child Foundation.
