Nigeria’s oil and gas industry growth suffered a 19.8 percent decline in the fourth quarter of 2020, this is In with its 2019 record, covering a similar timeline, this is according to data from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
According to OPEC’s, country-by-country analysis of developments within member countries in its latest Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR), the oil cartel revealed that in the previous month, it fell by 13.9 per cent, although the non-oil sector grew by 1.7 per cent.
The report shows that Nigeria’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose by 0.1 percent year-on-year in Q4, 2020 after the sector witnessed a 3.6 percent contraction in Q3, 2020, which marks the first positive quarterly growth having undergone a decline in demand in the last three quarters following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The non-oil sector expanded 1.7 percent, recovering from a 2.5 percent decline in 3Q,2020, mainly driven by growth in the telecommunications and information services sectors.
“Other important contributions came from the agricultural sector, which expanded by 3.4 percent y-o-y in 4Q, 2020. Meanwhile, the oil sector dropped by 19.8 percent y-o-y after a 13.9 percent y-o-y contraction in 3Q, 2020,” the report for May stated.
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OPEC noted that in 2020, the economy shrank 1.9 percent y-o-y, following a 2.3 percent y-o-y growth in 2019, while inflation was still structurally high in the first quarter of this year, with the annual inflation rate surging to 18.17 per cent in March 2021, the highest rate since January 2017 amid the sustained impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that has also left the Naira in a weak state.
At the same time, Russia and Oman in April increased their outputs, thereby lowering the compliance rate by OPEC+, with nine non-OPEC countries that participate in the cuts overproducing by 347,000 barrels per day, equating to a compliance rate of 85 percent, the lowest level for the 12 months that the pact had been in force.
