By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria continued its hold its position as Africa’s top crude oil producer as it produced an average of 1.35 million barrels per day in October 2023, according to the monthly oil market report from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) which was released on Monday, November 13, 2023.
The OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) sees fundamentals as strong, expecting an increase in Chinese crude imports to a new yearly record this year and dismissing negative market sentiment as overblown.
According to the report, oil production figures aside from condensate production from the top four oil producers in Africa were stated as follows: Nigeria – 1.35 million barrels per day, Libya – 1.18 million barrels per day, Angola – 1.14 million barrels per day, and Algeria – 961,000 barrels per day.
Relying on secondary sources, OPEC’s 13-member crude oil production averaged 27.90 million barrels per day in October 2023, higher by 80,000 barrels per day month-on-month.
Crude oil output increased mainly in Angola, Iran and Nigeria, while production in Libya, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait decreased.
Nigeria and Angola have been recovering from internal challenges that limited their output but OPEC observed that Nigeria’s oil output, as well as that of the 11 members subject to output limits, remained below their output targets.
Iran, exempt from OPEC supply cuts because of US sanctions, has been boosting output in 2023 in a trend that analysts say appears to be the result of Iran’s success in evading the sanctions and US discretion in enforcing them.
In the latest OPEC report, the world’s forecast for oil demand growth in 2023 has seen a slight increase and has not been put at 2.5 million barrels per day.
This is the last report before OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, meet on November 26 to set policy. The group has been cutting production since late 2022 to support the market and its latest agreement calls for output curbs throughout 2024.
