*As production slips by 115,000b/d in December
OpeOluwani Akintayo
22 January 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Indications are that Nigeria may not be joining the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC’s oil output cap anytime soon as data obtained from the group shows that the country’s oil production dropped by 115,000 barrels per day last December.
According to OPEC’s Monthly Oil Market Report for December recently released, data provided by direct communication with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, showed that Nigeria’s oil output in 2017 kept sliding downwards month to month for no stated reason.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu has been consistent in his reference to obsolete facilities impeding production.
Another reason could be attacks on oil pipelines in 2016, however, 2017 had seen almost no occurrence of pipeline vandalism.
Data obtained from OPEC showed that last November, Nigeria’s oil production figures provided by the NNPC indicated that the country produced 1.751 million barrels per day, while communication provided by a secondary source pegged [roduction at 1.790 million barrels per day.
However, in December production dropped to 1.636 million barrels per day, according to data provided by a direct source.
The differential between November’s production of 1.751 million b/d and 1.636 million b/d in December resulted in a loss of 115,000b/d in December, totalling 3,565,000 million barrels lost in the last month of last year.
OPEC has asked Nigeria to cap production at 1.8 million barrels per day. Normally, Nigeria produces between 2.2-2.8 million barrels per day.
As at December 2017, price of Nigeria’s Bonny light crude was $64 per barrel.
When the differential of 115,000 daily was multiplied by $64 per barrel, it showed that the country had lost a whopping daily revenue of $7,360,000 million per day or $228,160,000 million for the month of December as a result of the drop in production between November and December.
More data provided by OPEC through a direct source showed that in 2016, Nigeria produced 1.427 million barrels per day, while in the first quarter, Q1 2017, it produced 1.516 million b/d.
In the second quarter, the country’s production decreased to 1.485 million b/d, and 1.592 million b/d in Q3.
In the fourth quarter, Nigeria produced 1.595 million b/d, and as at October, production stood at 1.600 million b/d, while in November, output dropped to 1.547 million b/d.
Nigeria ended the year with a production of 1.636 million b/d.
On the other hand, data provided by a secondary source for December showed that in 2016, Nigeria had a daily production of 1.556 million barrels, while in the first quarter, the country produced 1.663 million barrels per day.
In the second quarter, production dropped to 1.594 million b/d, rising further to 1.763 million b/d by the third quarter.
Production edged upwards by the fourth quarter to 1.781 million b/d and 1.697 million b/d in October, rising further to 1.785 million b/d in November, finally resting at 1.861 million b/d in December.
