…ranks fourth on OPEC’s list
OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — Nigeria raked in a whopping $54. 4 billion from crude oil exports last year, ranking fourth on OPEC’s list of highest-earning countries in the group.
Statistics from the Organization for the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC’s World Oil Outlook, WOO 2019, showed that Nigeria earned $67 billion as far back as 2010, dropping to $54b by 2018, contributing 31.3 percent to GDP in that year. This trend of lesser revenue from the product last year wasn’t peculiar to Nigeria, as most OPEC members also witnessed drop in earnings.
For instance, Saudi Arabia which is the number one exporter in OPEC raked in as much as $214.9 billion in 2010 but relapsed to $194.4b last year.
On the second position the United Arab Emirates, UAE with $74.6b in 2010 and $74.9b in 2018, while Iraq that earned $51.6b in 2010, made $68.2b in 2018.
Iran in the third-place earned $72.2b in 2010 and $60.2b in 2018.
OPEC currently exports about 29 million barrels per day but as a percentage of the global total, the level has dropped. In 1990, crude oil and petroleum product exports of OPEC member countries constituted more than 44% of the global total, whereas, in 2018, the figure was about 38%.
Oil rents also correspond to an average of about 21% of OPEC economies’ GDP; with export revenues from oil being estimated at a level of almost $650 billion in 2018.
