According to research, Nigeria’s capacity to extract crude oil has decreased by 83%.
The country’s export capability decreased by approximately 100% between 2021 and 2021, according to data from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ report on the macroeconomic sytems of its members.
According to a breakdown of the statistics, the nation’s monthly production capacity as of 2012 was around 95, 620 million barrels, or little more than 3 million barrels per day.
In 2013, it fell to 90, 546 million monthly at 2.9 mb/d, and in 2014, it fell even more to 75, 196 million barrels at 2.4 mb/d.
The nation’s oil production capacity further decreased to 41, 168 million barrels per month in 2015 and 27, 295 million barrels per month in 2016 at a rate of 880 000 barrels per day, but the trend changed and rose to 37, 983 million barrels per month in 2017.
You may remember that there was a worldwide recession between 2014 and 2016, which had a negative effect on emerging nations.
During this time, insurgency in the Niger Delta caused vandalism, which severely hampered Nigeria’s ability to produce crude oil.
In contrast, it increased to 54, 513 million barrels at 1.7 mb/d in 2018.
The nation’s oil output continued to decline, reaching 45, 106 million barrels per month in 2019 and 27, 730 million barrels at 894, 000 barrels per day in 2020.
Production resumed in 2021 and settled at 41, 378 million barrels per month at 1.3 million barrels per day.
For a while, the nation had struggled to fulfill its OPEC quota.
In 2020, Nigeria received a quota from OPEC of 1.4 mb/d, followed by 1.5 mb/d in 2021 and 1.7 mb/d in 2022.
Nigeria’s oil export has been suffering until lately, when many gangs involved in crude oil theft were dismantled in the Niger Delta area. According to OPEC, production had dropped abruptly to about 900,000 barrels per day in September.
The nation’s declining oil output, according to Bala Wunti, Chief Upstream Investment Officer at NNPCL Upstream Investment Management Services, was back up to roughly 1.6 mb/d in December.
“Crude theft impacts every architecture that finances the nation,” he added. The production of gas was impacted while the oil theft was at its worst.
The navy, the police, and everyone else in that region were all participating in our security agencies, to start. The angle of the regulator is the second. The third is the operators’ perspective, and at this point, all regulators have been made to completely participate in the endeavor. Naturally, all operators took part in this. The fourth perspective is the community perspective, wherein all impacted communities must be brought under the auspices of a formal arrangement as part of a coordinated effort to combat crude oil theft. All all, these measures were successful in detecting, discouraging, and correctly responding to threats.
Wunti said that throughout that time, oil output increased to 1.59 million barrels per day.
The navy, the police, and everyone else in that region were all participating in our security agencies, to start. The angle of the regulator is the second. The third is the operators’ perspective, and at this point, all regulators have been made to completely participate in the endeavor. Naturally, all operators took part in this. The fourth perspective is the community perspective, wherein all impacted communities must be brought under the auspices of a formal arrangement as part of a coordinated effort to combat crude oil theft. All all, these measures were successful in detecting, discouraging, and correctly responding to threats.
Wunti said that throughout that time, oil output increased to 1.59 million barrels per day.
However, research into OPEC’s monthly oil market report for January 2023 revealed that Nigeria’s direct sources reported 1.2 mb/d of output for December.
Meanwhile, academics have urged that Nigeria and other countries in Africa need to diversify their economies beyond those based on oil and gas.
Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Uyo in Akwa Ibom State, Akpan Ekpo, recently told The PUing in an interview that Nigeria has to diversify since oil money is no more dependable even if crude oil still accounts for 80% of all commerce.
Oil prices are unpredictable, therefore we need to find alternative methods to increase money, he added.
Ayodele Oni, a partner with Bloomfield Law Practice, counseled the Federal Government on how to address the problem of oil theft plaguing the nation.
“Plans must be put in place to prevent the theft of crude. Our leaders must take initiative and think creatively. Many businesses are already developing other arrangements as we speak to get their petroleum to the export ports. It would be beneficial for our revenue, trade balance, and payment balance if we could sell more oil now that the price has risen on the global market, he added.
