According to research, Nigeria’s capacity to extract crude oil has decreased by 83%. The country’s export capability decreased by approximately 100% between 2021 and 2021, according to data from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ report on the macroeconomic sytems of its members.
According to a breakdown of the statistics, the nation’s monthly production capacity as of 2012 was around 95, 620 million barrels, or little more than 3 million barrels per day.
It decreased to 90, 546 million barrels per month at 2.9 mb/d in 2013 and even more to 75, 196 million barrels at 2.4 mb/d in 2014.
The nation’s oil production capacity further decreased to 41, 168 million barrels per month in 2015 and 27, 295 million barrels per month in 2016 at a rate of 880 000 barrels per day, but the trend changed and rose to 37, 983 million barrels per month in 2017.
You may remember that there was a worldwide recession between 2014 and 2016, which had a negative effect on emerging nations.
During this time, insurgency in the Niger Delta caused vandalism, which severely hampered Nigeria’s ability to produce crude oil. In contrast, it increased to 54, 513 million barrels at 1.7 mb/d in 2018.
The country’s oil production further dropped to 45, 106 million per month in 2019, and further down to 27, 730 million barrels at 894, 000 barrels per day in 2020.
Production resumed in 2021 and settled at 41, 378 million barrels per month at 1.3 million barrels per day. For a while, the nation had struggled to fulfill its OPEC quota. In 2020, Nigeria received a quota from OPEC of 1.4 mb/d, followed by 1.5 mb/d in 2021 and 1.7 mb/d in 2022.
Nigeria’s oil export has been suffering until lately, when many gangs involved in crude oil theft were dismantled in the Niger Delta area. According to OPEC, production had dropped abruptly to about 900,000 barrels per day in September.
The nation’s declining oil output, according to Bala Wunti, Chief Upstream Investment Officer at NNPCL Upstream Investment Management Services, was back up to roughly 1.6 mb/d in December.
He said, “Crude theft affects all architecture that funds the country. When the oil theft reached its peak, everything including gas production was affected.
“One, we have security agencies in which the navy, the police, and everyone within that space was involved. The second is the regulator’s angle. At this stage, all regulators were made to fully be part of the effort he thirdhird is the operators’ angle. And, of course, all operators were involved. The fourth angle is the community angle in which all impacted communities have to be brought under the umbrella of a structured arrangement in the collective effort against crude oil theft. In all, these efforts were able to do three things; Detect, deter and respond appropriately.”
Wunti further disclosed that oil production had risen to 1.59 million barrels per day during that period.
However, checks on OPEC’s monthly oil market report for January 2023 showed that Nigeria’s production for December was 1.2mb/d as provided by direct sources. Meanwhile, experts have argued that Africa, Nigeria inclusive, needs to diversify its economy away from oil and gas.
