The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has been advised to allow International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the country to increase their production from the current 1.7 million to 2.2 million barrels per day.

This followed assurances given by the by the Joint Task Force (JTF) South-South, Operation Delta Safe in its progress report on crude oil production and security efforts in the Niger Delta region.

According to the Coordinator of OPDS Joint Media Campaign Centre, Major K. O Owolabi, the current efforts of the troops to monitor, patrol, and deter vandals along the pipelines were yielding positive results.

However, he said “Output has not yet reached the target of 2.2 million bpd, which could be due to the collective production capacity of the IOCs”

It therefore called on “ the NNPC to encourage IOCs to increase production to meet the target of 2.2 million bpd, given the security and 100 per cent terminal factor on all lines.

“Daily crude oil output has reached an about 1.7 million bpd, indicating that International Oil Companies (IOCs) are operating at maximum production capacity with little interruption or vandalism along the three major pipe lines”.