By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria’s crude oil production declined again, this time by 1.7 per cent to an average of 1.354 million barrels per day in March 2022 compared to the 1.378 million barrels per day produced averagely in the month of February 2022.
This is according to the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Oil Market Report for April 2022, indicating that the figure showed a decrease of 24,000 barrels per day month-on-month.
“According to secondary sources, total OPEC-13 crude oil production averaged 28.56 mb/d in March 2022, higher by 57 tb/d month-on-month.
“Crude oil output increased mainly in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates while production in Libya, Nigeria and Congo declined,” it said.
The report noted that following a contraction of 1.8 per cent year-on-year in 2020, Nigeria’s economy expanded by 3.6 per cent in 2021.
It said this economic recovery was most likely to continue over the course of 2022 with support from improvements in the hydrocarbons sector and energy prices.
The report said: “Recent official data suggested that the annual inflation rate edged up slightly to 15.7 per cent in February 2022 from 15.6 per cent in January 2022, although food inflation remained elevated.
“Indeed, higher food costs related to geopolitical tensions could further fuel inflation.
“In March 2022, the overall business improvement softened as Stanbic IBTC Bank Nigeria’s Purchasing Managers’ Index suggested, indeed it dropped to 54.1 from 57.3 in February.
“Yet, the overall prospects for Nigeria’s short-term economic outlook remain positive, despite concerns over inflationary pressures amid disruptions to global trade flows and supply shortages,” OPEC stated.
In the report, the growth forecast for non-OPEC supply in 2022 was reduced by just over 300,000 barrels per day to 2.7 million barrels per day. OPEC cut its forecast of Russian output by 530,000 barrels per day, although it raised its forecast for US tight oil, another term for shale.
OPEC expects US tight oil supply to rise by 880,000 barrels per day in 2022, up from 670,000 barrels per day last month and said there was potential for further expansion even though most US oil companies are still focusing on capital discipline.
OPEC and its allies, which include Russia, in a grouping known as OPEC+, are unwinding record output cuts put in place in 2020 and have rebuffed Western pressure to raise output at a faster pace.
At its last meeting, OPEC+ deviated from the Ukraine war, which Russia refers to as a “special military operation”, and stuck to a previously agreed plan to boost its monthly output target by 432,000 barrels per day in May.
Underinvestment in oilfields in some OPEC members like Nigeria means the group has been unable to fully deliver its promised output increases.
