Economy
Nigeria Adds 77,000bpd Crude Oil in October, Remains Below OPEC Target
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria continued to lag in its crude oil production despite increasing its output by 77,000 barrels per day in October, but it wasn’t enough to return the country to the top of the table as Africa’s largest producer.
The country is now in the fourth position behind the trio of Angola, Algeria, and Libya due to its continued inability to meet the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil quota.
In the month under review, Algeria drilled 1.060 million barrels per day, Angola produced 1.051 million barrels per day, Libya’s output was 1.163 million barrels per day, while Nigeria’s oil production stood at 1.024 million barrels per day.
Even though Algeria gained a paltry 2,000 barrels per day, it lost 40,000 barrels per day, with Libya gaining 6,000 barrels per day, according to OPEC’s secondary source in its Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) published on Monday.
Giving its review of Nigeria’s economic environment, OPEC noted, “Nigeria’s economic outlook has been impacted by the devastating rains and floods that affected 31 of Nigeria’s 36 states and has resulted in a significant loss of land, lives and livelihoods. The latest data suggested that record-high inflation continues to persist.”
“Upward price pressures were mainly caused by supply disruptions amid the widespread flooding and higher import costs. However, considering the broad money-supply growth of 21% y-o-y in August, there is a significant monetary component behind the inflationary spiral,” it added.
The cartel warned, “the inflationary pressures are suppressing consumption spending, which might weigh on the growth of household volume consumption.”
OPEC’s crude oil production dropped by 210,000 barrels per day in the month under review compared to the previous month after the cartel, and the wider OPEC+ group reversed the small output increase in September.
The crude oil production of all 13 OPEC members, including those exempt from the OPEC+ pact – Venezuela, Iran, and Libya – averaged 29.49 million barrels per day in October.
Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of OPEC and its top producer, saw its production decline by 149,000 barrels per day to an average of 10.838 million barrels per day last month, as OPEC+ decided in early September to reverse a 100,000 barrels per day increase in target oil production, which was only intended for September.
Saudi Arabia’s production dropped the most among OPEC members and was below the targeted production level of 11.004 million barrels per day per the schedule the OPEC+ meeting had adopted. The Kingdom self-reported higher production for October than secondary sources’ estimates, at 10.957 million barrels per day, down by 84,000 barrels per day compared to September.
Production in Angola saw the second-steepest drop in OPEC producers in October, but it wasn’t the result of a conscious reduction since the top African producer has been lagging behind its quota for many months. Angola’s crude oil production fell by 78,000 barrels per day to 1.067 million barrels per day in October, according to OPEC’s secondary sources.
Over the coming months, OPEC’s production is set to decline further after the OPEC+ alliance decided to reduce its collective target by 2 million barrels per day for November.
Although the actual cut is expected to be around half that number, at 1.1 million barrels per day, it still is the biggest cut since the record production reduction announced in April 2020 when oil demand plunged at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
By Adedapo Adesanya
President Bola Tinubu on Friday presented a budget proposal of N58.47 trillion for the 2026 fiscal year titled Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity to a joint session of the National Assembly, with capital recurrent (non‑debt) expenditure standing at 15.25 trillion, and the capital expenditure at N26.08 trillion, while the crude oil benchmark was pegged at $64.85 per barrel.
Business Post reports that the Brent crude grade currently trades around $60 per barrel. It is also expected to trade at that level or lower next year over worries about oil glut.
At the budget presentation today, Mr Tinubu said the expected total revenue for the year is N34.33 trillion, and the proposal is anchored on a crude oil production of 1.84 million barrels per day, and an exchange rate of N1,400 to the US Dollar.
In terms of sectoral allocation, defence and security took the lion’s share with N5.41 trillion, followed by infrastructure at N3.56 trillion, education received N3.52 trillion, while health received N2.48 trillion.
Addressing the lawmakers, the President described the budget proposal as not “just accounting lines”.
“They are a statement of national priorities,” the president told the gathering. “We remain firmly committed to fiscal sustainability, debt transparency, and value‑for‑money spending.”
The presentation came at a time of heightened insecurity in parts of the country, with mass abductions and other crimes making headlines.
Outlining his government’s plan to address the challenge, President Tinubu reminded the gathering that security “remains the foundation of development”.
He said some of the measures in place to tame insecurity include the modernisation of the Armed Forces, intelligence‑driven policing and joint operations, border security, and technology‑enabled surveillance and community‑based peacebuilding and conflict prevention.
“We will invest in security with clear accountability for outcomes—because security spending must deliver security results,” the president said.
“To secure our country, our priority will remain on increasing the fighting capability of our armed forces and other security agencies by boosting personnel and procuring cutting-edge platforms and other hardware,” he added.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The deadline for the recapitalisation of the Nigerian pension industry has been extended by six months to June 2027 from December 2026.
This extension was approved by the National Pension Commission (PenCom), the agency, which regulates the sector in the country.
Addressing newsmen on Thursday in Lagos, the Director-General of PenCom, Ms Omolola Oloworaran, explained that the shift in deadline was to give operators more time to boost the capital base, dismissing speculations that the exercise had been suspended.
“The recapitalisation has not been suspended. We have communicated the requirements to the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), and we expect every operator to be compliant by June 2027. Anyone who is not compliant by then will lose their licence,” Ms Oloworaran told journalists.
She added that, “From a regulatory standpoint, our major challenge is ensuring compliance. We are working with ICPC, labour and the TUC to ensure employers remit pension contributions for their employees.”
The DG noted that engagements with industry operators indicated broad acceptance of the policy, with many PFAs already taking steps to raise additional capital or explore mergers and acquisitions.
“You may see some mergers and acquisitions in the industry, but what is clear is that the recapitalisation exercise is on track and the industry agrees with us,” she stated.
PenCom wants the PFAs to increase their capital base and has created three categories, with the first consists operators with Assets Under Management of N500 billion and above. They are expected to have a minimum capital of N20 billion and one per cent of AUM above N500 billion.
The second category has PFAs with AUM below N500 billion, which must have at least N20 billion as capital base.
The last segment comprises special-purpose PFAs such as NPF Pensions Limited, whose minimum capital was pegged at N30 billion, and the Nigerian University Pension Management Company Limited, whose minimum capital was fixed at N20 billion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Three securities weakened the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange by 0.68 per cent on Thursday, December 18.
According to data, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc led the losers’ group after it slipped by N2.87 to N36.78 per share from N39.65 per share, Golden Capital Plc depreciated by 77 Kobo to end at N6.98 per unit versus the previous day’s N7.77 per unit, and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc dropped 19 Kobo to sell at N60.00 per share versus Wednesday’s closing price of N60.19 per share.
At the close of business, the market capitalisation lost N16.81 billion to finish at N2.147 billion compared with the preceding session’s N2.164 trillion, and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) declined by 24.76 points to 3,589.88 points from 3,614.64 points.
Yesterday, the volume of securities bought and sold increased by 49.3 per cent to 30.5 million units from 20.4 million units, the value of securities surged by 211.8 per cent to N225.1 million from N72.2 million, and the number of deals jumped by 33.3 per cent to 28 deals from 21 deals.
Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Company (InfraCredit) Plc remained the most traded stock by value with a year-to-date sale of 5.8 billion units valued at N16.4 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with 178.9 million units transacted for N9.5 billion, and MRS Oil Plc with 36.1 million units worth N4.9 billion.
Similarly, InfraCredit Plc ended as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with 5.8 billion units traded for N16.4 billion, trailed by Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc with 1.2 billion units sold for N420.7 million, and Impresit Bakolori Plc with 536.9 million units exchanged for N524.9 million.
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