President Bola Tinubu has ordered the immediate reactivation of all dormant oil assets across Nigeria as part of efforts to increase crude oil production and shore up revenues from the petroleum sector.

The directive was delivered on Tuesday by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, at the ongoing 2025 Nigeria Oil and Gas Energy Week in Abuja.

“To sustain growth in our oil industry, we must first sustain our investment in capacity building,” Lokpobiri said. “The recent wave of asset divestments and the subsequent increase in production volumes underscore a critical truth: we have the indigenous capacity to grow this industry.”

He emphasized that President Tinubu’s order must be treated with the utmost seriousness by operators in the oil and gas sector.

“In my address, I urged all operators to ensure every asset under them is active and productive. This is not a suggestion but a directive from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and it must be treated with the urgency and gravity it deserves,” he said.

According to Lokpobiri, reactivating the oil assets will not only drive growth in the oil sector but also ensure the sustainability of investments and meet both local and global energy demands.

“This is not just a rhetorical challenge, it is a call to action, one that speaks to our collective responsibility in meeting both domestic energy needs and international commitments,” he added.

Nigeria has set an ambitious crude oil production target of 2.1 million barrels per day and N84.67 trillion in oil revenue for 2025, based on a projected oil price of $75 per barrel. However, actual production has remained sluggish, with output hovering around 1.4 million barrels per day.

Crude oil and condensate production stood at 1.63 million barrels per day in May, a slight rise from 1.61 million barrels per day recorded in April.