Nigeria’s upstream oil sector regulatory commission, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), has reported that the country recorded 3.33 million barrels of crude oil theft in 2025, with about 66% of the theft recorded in the fourth quarter of the year.
The commission, in its 2025 Annual Report on the upstream sector of the hydrocarbon resources industry published on Thursday, captured the country’s crude oil production, domestic supply, exports and field development activities during the year.
According to the data, the reported crude oil theft largely happended towards the end of 2025, as the commission outlined plans to expand the country’s oil and gas production output through new field developments.
A breakdown of the crude oil theft on a quarterly basis showed that 896,471 barrels of crude oil theft was recorded in the first quarter, while the second quarter recorded a negative 200,400 barrels, which the NUPRC described as an excess volume in its reconciliation.
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Also, the report indicated that in the third quarter of the year under review, 440,434 barrels of crude oil were stolen, while the fourth quarter recorded 2.19 million barrels, the highest quarterly volume of the year.
The annual report also showed that Nigeria produced 541.08 million barrels of crude oil and blended condensate in 2025, based on the quarterly figures. Production was relatively stable, rising from 132.70 million barrels in the first quarter to 137.69 million barrels in the second quarter, before easing to 137.45 million barrels in the third quarter and 133.23 million barrels in the fourth quarter.
The commission also revealed that unblended condensate production added another 48.52 million barrels during the year.
Apart from the crude oil theft menace last year, the NUPRC reported some trajectory in processing field development plans by it designed to boost Nigeria’s upstream hydrocarbon resources output over the next few years.
The commission reported that it processed 75 field development plan applications in 2025, comprising 58 received during the year and 17 carried forward from 2024, adding that of these, 48 were approved, 10 rejected and 17 remained under processing at the end of the year.
By its projection, the approved projects are expected to develop about 1.75 billion barrels of oil reserves, 104.48 million barrels of condensate reserves and 8.19 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves.
The NUPRC also expressed optimism that the field development plans would add approximately 743,830 barrels of oil per day, 23,707 barrels of condensate per day and 3.09 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day to production capacity.
The commission further anticipated that the approved projects, seven of the 48 approved plans which are focused exclusively on non-associated gas development, would achieve first oil production between 2026 and 2030.
