Nigeria lost 3.33 million barrels of crude oil to theft in 2025, with 2.19 million barrels recorded in the fourth quarter alone, according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

The figures were contained in the commission’s 2025 annual report released on Thursday, which detailed the country’s oil production, crude oil losses and upstream development activities.

The report showed that 896,471 barrels were lost to theft in the first quarter, while the second quarter recorded a negative 200,400 barrels, representing excess volumes identified during reconciliation. Losses stood at 440,434 barrels in the third quarter before rising sharply in the final three months of the year.

Despite the losses, Nigeria produced 541.08 million barrels of crude oil and blended condensate in 2025. Unblended condensate production contributed an additional 48.52 million barrels.

The commission also disclosed that it processed 75 field development plan applications during the year, approving 48, rejecting 10 and leaving 17 under review.

The approved projects are expected to unlock 1.75 billion barrels of oil reserves, 104.48 million barrels of condensate and 8.19 trillion cubic feet of gas. They could also add 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 Nigeria’s production capacity.

The projects are expected to begin producing between 2026 and 2030.

Meanwhile, Nigeria continues to face challenges in meeting its production targets. The 2026 budget is based on a daily crude oil production target of 1.84 million barrels, but OPEC data showed that the country’s output averaged 1.505 million barrels per day from July 2026.