By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria’s crude oil production has slumped below one million barrels per day, according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
The agency said Nigeria, which has now lost its Africa’s largest oil producer status, produced an average of 972,394 barrels per day in August 2022.
The latest figure indicates that Nigeria’s daily crude output dropped drop 9.9 per cent when compared to July 2022 production, which was 1.08 million barrels per day.
Amid the dynamic and rapidly evolving oil market fundamentals, Nigeria has not been able to achieve its production level that has been bedevilled by chronic underinvestment in the oil sector which has reduced excess capacities along the upstream, midstream, and downstream value chains.
The country has also faced never-ending oil theft that has affected production output that has seen it lose over $1 billion in revenue during the first quarter of this year.
According to Mr Gbenga Komolafe, the head of NUPRC, out of the 141 million barrels of oil produced in the first quarter of 2022, only about 132 million barrels of oil were received at export terminals.
In recent months, Nigeria has failed to meet production quotas assigned to it by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, OPEC+.
Regardless, the 23-nation alliance raised Nigeria’s oil production quota to 1.830 million barrels per day in September from 1.826 million barrels per day in August.
Dipo Olowookere