Nigeria is in talks with oil majors and banks to raise capital for new drilling projects as most recent statistics have indicated that the country has seen a loss in oil capital of up to $1.34b in 2015. The country also seeks additional finances to repay its debt of up to $4b that the state oil firm (NNPC) has accumulated over years of mismanagement, company’s head told Reuters. 

Previously, NNPC was in talks with oil majors such as Italy’s Eni and oil traders Vitol and Gunvor, seeking partnerships to revamp assets such as refineries after decades of neglect. Last year, three out of the four state-owned refineries were closed for seven months due to maintenance and vandalism.

In line with country’s plan to recover its oil losses, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum, said he wanted to increase country’s oil output to up to 2.5mb/d by the end of 2016, up from the current level of 2.3mb/d of oil.

Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, has made reforming the oil sector a priority as a slump in oil prices keeps hammering country’st economy. The former military ruler has fired the NNPC board and appointed Kachikwu to overhaul a company whose opaque structures have allowed corruption and oil theft to flourish. The new management, appointed only in August last year, has not yet been able to stop the haemorrhaging, especially at a time of crushingly cheap oil, Financial Times reported.