Crude oil production in Nigeria has climbed to 1.6 million barrels per day despite incessant attacks on oil installations, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, said yesterday.

He also stated that the government remained optimistic of meeting the 2.3 million barrels per day production target before December.

The country has suffered series of attacks by a new militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers, which have dipped the country’s production to 22-year low.

But Kachikwu told Reuters in Vienna, venue of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting that Nigeria’s output has surged by over 200, 000 in one month.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Mohammed Barkindo, will serve as the Secretary General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), for thenext three years.

The cartel’s oil ministers announced this in Vienna yesterday. Barkindo is to succeed long-time incumbent, Abdalla El-Badri, of Libya from August.

The 13-country group did not reach a decision on limiting its oil output. The minister said OPEC remained open-minded on output quota.

Saudi Arabia also promised not to flood the oil market with extra barrels as OPEC entered a heated debate about production policy, with Iran insisting on the right to raise output steeply.

Tensions between the Sunni-led kingdom and the Shi’ite Islamic Republic have been the highlights of several previous OPEC meetings, including in December 2015 when the group failed to agree on a formal output target for the first time in years.