Nigeria is producing 1.78 million barrels of crude oil per day (MMbbl/d), Minister of State for Petroleum Emmanuel Kachikwu said Jan. 9.

Kachikwu added that the West African country was expecting output from the Egina oil field to reach 150,000 bbl/d by the end of the month, which could boost total production.

“The work that we have at the ministry is to determine what component of that 150,000 barrels is pure crude and what is condensates,” he told reporters in Abuja after a cabinet meeting. “If it is pure crude it raises certain other implications in terms of the OPEC quota. If it is condensates then obviously we smile.”

With production cuts agreed by OPEC, Nigeria’s output has been around 1.74 million, excluding extremely light oil known as condensates. The minister said Nigeria produced condensates of 350,000 bbl/d.

Kachikwu has said Nigeria aimed to produce 2.2 MMbbl in 2019.

The minister said the cabinet approved a contract to replace a crude pipeline for Opkoho and Okono fields on OML 119 for $37 million to help boost output.

Kachikwu also said state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. and prospective private investors were in disagreement on financial terms over the revamp of the country’s refineries.