"We have built capacity of up to 2.4 million b/d, but [we are] currently producing about 1.9 million b/d," Omar Farouk, the special adviser on international energy relations to Nigeria's oil minister of state, said on the ministry's twitter handle.

If Nigeria and Libya restore production, the kingdom may need to cut twice as much. U.S. shale drillers also stand ready to fill any supply gap.

Shell says a fire has forced it to close a key oil pipeline feeding Nigeria's strategic Bonny Export Terminal, which militants attacked last week.

“This period of low oil price is not a time to jeopardize Nigeria’s long term interests by showing Nigeria as a place not to be trusted, and projecting our business environment as unconducive,”

Nigeria's crude oil production disruptions are concentrated in the Niger Delta region, an oil-rich area bordering the Gulf of Guinea that is the mainstay of the country's crude oil production. Since the beginning of 2016, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) have conducted many attacks on oil and natural gas infrastructure throughout the region. Although not the only militant group conducting attacks in the region, the NDA is currently the most active.

"Memorandum of understandings (MoUs) worth over $80 billion to be spent on investments in oil and gas infrastructure, pipelines, refineries, power, facility refurbishments and upstream have been signed with Chinese companies,"

Oil production in Nigeria has risen to about 1.9 million barrels per day (bpd), from 1.6 million bpd, due to repairs and more than a week having passed since a major pipeline attack in the Niger Delta

“We’re looking to raise about $40 to $50 billion,” Kachikwu said in the Bloomberg interview. “Going to places like China, which have a huge capacity to put money in the oil sector, is very helpful.”

Nigeria's crude oil and condensate production has fallen almost 50% from the start of the year to around 1.1 million b/d.

Nigeria's oil output fell close to a 22-year low this month due to attacks on oil pipelines in the southern Niger Delta, home to much of the country's oil and gas wealth, compounding the impact of low oil prices on Africa's largest economy.