*Collage of crude oil and gas activities.
OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — Nigeria earned $25 million (approximately N9.5 billion) through the oil and gas sector in the third quarter of the year, according to data from the statistics office, NBS.
The National Bureau of Statistics in the report, ranked the sector as the eight with the highest capital importation into the country in the quarter under review.
While the oil and gas sector raked in $25 million in the quarter, other sectors such as the production earned the country $400 million, Banking $384 million, shares $283 million, $134 million, telecoms $101 million, trading $54 million, and agriculture $51 million.
The total value of capital importation into Nigeria stood at $1,461.49m in the third quarter of 2020. This represents an increase of 12.86% compared to Q2 2020 and -74.03% decrease compared to the third quarter of 2019.
Nigeria’s oil sector contributes to about nine percent of the country’s GDP. Between July and September 2020, the oil industry contributed to 8.73 percent of the total real GDP, a decrease by one percentage point compared to the same period of 2019.
The global oil sector recently witnessed a crash as prices fell from a historical $100 per barrel to as low as $0.01 a barrel before falling to as low as negative $40 and eventually settling at negative $37.63, the lowest level recorded since the New York Mercantile Exchange began trading oil futures in 1983.
Nigeria oil and gas industry games off to a flying start
As a result, Nigeria, an oil-dependent economy saw tumbling in her earnings from the sector, resulting in government shifting focus from oil to gas sector, and birthing the Nigerian Gas Expansion Programme, NGEP.
President Mohammadu Buhari had recently said the country earned more from gas than oil in the course of the year, adding that the 614 kilometers-long Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano, AKK pipeline project currently being developed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC will go a long way to broadening huge economic prospects for Nigeria.
