Oscarline Onwuemenyi
27 September 2014, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Nigeria’s oil export will climb to a 14 month high of 1.91 million barrels per day (bpd) in November, says international news agency Reuters citing loading programmes.
It is the country’s highest level since September 2013, and is higher than the upwardly revised figure of 1.86 million bpd due to be exported in October.
Oil theft, illegal bunkering and vandalism of oil facilities have combined to impact negatively on oil production in Nigeria, prompting actions on the part of the Federal Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) towards protecting oil facilities and ensuring increased production.
The Reuters report further noted that higher exports of the Bonny Light grade, which had been beset by oil theft, outweighed a dip in the level of Qua Iboe in Akwa Ibom State and Forcados exports.
Nigeria’s headship of the list of biggest oil producers in Africa is tightly contested by Angola which is on track to ramp up exploration and production in a bid to increase production to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) next year and then maintain that level for five years.
But Nigeria is producing well below its oil production capacity of over 3 million barrels per day, its highest was 2.53 million barrels per day in 2011.
The Nigerian economy is heavily dependent on the oil sector, which, accounts for over 95 percent of export earnings and about 40 percent of government revenues, according to the International Monetary Fund.
