International oil companies operating in the country and other producers left a total of 101 oilfields idle as of December 2017 as a result of operational issues and sabotage, among others, the Department of Petroleum Resources has said.

The total number of fields (producing and shut in) stood at 285 for 44 oil-producing companies as of the end of December 2017, according to the 2017 Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Annual Report, which was launched on Tuesday in Lagos.

It said a total of 754,265,049 barrels of oil (and field condensate) were produced last year at an estimated average daily production of 2.07 million barrels of oil per day. There was a 5.6 per cent increase over the average production rate for 2016, when a total of 718,612,967 barrels were produced at an estimated average daily production of 1.96 million bopd.

Source: The Punch