Nigeria’s daily oil production falls to 2.09 million barrels

The nation’s oil production, including condensate, declined by
about 70,000 barrels per day to 2.09 million bpd in October,
compared to the preceding month, new data from the Ministry of
Petroleum Resources have shown.

The data obtained by our correspondent from the ministry on
Friday showed that oil production in the country rose to a 2018
high of 2.16 million bpd in September from 2.145 million bpd in
August.

The nation’s oil output stood at 1.968 million bpd in July, up
from 1.896 million bpd in June and 1.826 million in May.

The country produced 2.069 million bpd in April, 2.022 million
bpd in March, 2.105 in February, and 2.070 million bpd in January,
the ministry said.

The drop in October comes after a recent upsurge in sabotage
attacks on production facilities by oil thieves reported by the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

The NNPC said on November 4 that sabotage attacks on its oil
pipelines were on the increase, and could potentially hurt oil
production and petroleum products supply.

Industry officials and analysts have also expressed concern over
a possible upsurge in violence in the nation’s oil sector ahead of
the general elections next February.

The government is hoping to see average oil output of 2.3
million bpd this year in order to fund its budget.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu,
told S&P Global Platts on Wednesday that the country’s oil
output was just below two million bpd with crude accounting for
around 1.6 million bpd and condensate comprising some 400,000
bpd.

Nigerian output has been steady at around 1.6 million to two
million bpd over the past two years, although still below its full
capacity of 2.2 million bpd.

In 2016, output slumped to around 30-year low of around 1.1
million bpd due to attacks on its key oil infrastructure in the
oil-rich Niger Delta.

A new report by PwC, ‘Africa’s oil and gas review’, said
Africa’s share of global oil production had slightly increased by
0.3 per cent since last year to 8.7 per cent, standing at 8.1
million bpd.

It said, “The main contributors continue to be Nigeria, Angola,
Algeria and Egypt. Libya doubled production in 2017, promoting it
to the fourth-largest oil producer in Africa with an 11 per cent
share, moving Egypt into fifth position.

“Among the top five, Nigeria and Libya were the only countries
to increase production. The others declined, mostly in line with
production cuts agreed to by OPEC members. South Sudan experienced
another drop of 7.4 per cent in production in 2017, but recent
mediations in peace-deal negotiations led to the resumption of the
pumping of crude from suspended fields in September 2018, hopefully
pointing towards a turning point for the country.”

According to the report, proven oil reserves in Africa have
stayed at the same level of 7.5 per cent of global reserves.

“Exploration activity continued to decline in 2017. Africa was
reported to have 487.8 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves
at the end of 2017, unchanged at 7.1 per cent of global proven
reserves. Two significant gas finds by Kosmos Energy in the
Senegal-Mauritania basin in 2017 added an additional 1.5 billion
barrels of oil equivalent of gas to their portfolio,” it added.