Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has said Nigeria boosted its crude oil output by 91,000 barrels per day to 1.27 million barrels per day in December.
OPEC disclosed this information in a monthly report for January, which showed that world demand in 2023 would rise by 2.22 million barrels per day or 2.2 per cent.
The report also showed that OPEC’s production rose in December, even after the OPEC+ alliance comprising OPEC, Russia and other allies, pledged output cuts. The increase was influenced by the improvement in Nigeria’s oil production last month.
For November last year, with prices weakening, OPEC+ agreed to a 2 million barrels per day reduction in its output target, the largest since the early days of the pandemic in 2020.
OPEC’s share of the cut is 1.27 million barrels per day, while its allies were allowed to pump a total of 930,000 barrels per day.
In the report, OPEC said its crude oil output in December rose by 91,000 barrels per day to 28.97 million barrels per day, led by a rebound in Nigeria, which is now exempt from voluntary cuts. These figures are compiled by the cartel from secondary sources.
Nigeria has been battling crude theft and insecurity in its oil-producing region, although some companies have cited improved security.
Despite this, Nigeria is still below its OPEC quota of 1.74 million barrels per day, although the country is aiming for further recovery in 2023.
In December, during a presentation of the 2023 budget, Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, said she expects oil production to rise to 1.6 million barrels per day by the first quarter.
Oil production hit 1.185 million in November, figures from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) showed, after output fell to less than 1 million in August, the lowest in years due to increased crude oil theft and vandalism of pipelines.
The drop forced some companies to curtail or stop production, raising worries that many companies will exit the Nigerian market.
