By RMAFC ANOKAM

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), says the nation’s oil production rig has risen from eight in 2021 to 46 in July, 2025.

Mr Gbenga Komolafe, Commission Chief Executive (CCE), disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja at the inauguration of a media workshop organised for journalists covering the oil and gas sector.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the rig count is a key metric for measuring vibrancy and performance in the oil and gas industry.

The rig count which is a key equipment on which the oil is drilled reveals the level of vibrancy and the activities in the industry.

According to the commission’s data, about 46 active rigs are driving the current oil production in Nigeria.

Komolafe, however, attributed the steady growth in the rig count to the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) enactment in 2021, and the commission’s commitment geared towards increasing oil production in the country.

He said the NUPRC through its Project One Million Barrels initiative had scaled up Nigeria’s oil production from one million barrels per day, oscillating around 1.7 million barrels.

The NUPRC boss said the initiative which was inaugurated in Oct. 2024, was expected to increase oil production by one million additional units per year, adding that about 300,000 barrels of oil per day has been achieved since the inauguration of the programme.

He commended President Bola Tinubu for the Executive Orders 40, 41, and 42, which encouraged tax incentives and tax remission as well as redefined the contracting circle and the threshold in the industry.

Komolafe said the 2024 Executive Orders: 40 on fiscal incentives, 41 on local content, and 42 on cost efficiency and contract timelines, had catalysed massive investment inflows.

“These have yielded positive results in terms of the Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) that have attracted huge amounts of money, billions of dollars to the country,” he said.

He urged the media practitioners to report the commission activities professionally in such a way that Nigerians would appreciate and understand its operations.

“As a regulator, we are wrongly perceived, often times people fail to understand the difference between a regulator and an operator.

“As a regulator, our activities put us in a quasi-judicial position, in position to mediate, it is an omnibus job,” he said. (NAN)