OpeOluwani Akintayo
01 March 2019, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Nigeria’s crude oil export is slowly rising towards its target, as new loading schedule seen by SweetcrudeReports indicates plans to jerk up its market quota in April to 853, 000 barrels per day, bpd.
New oil loading schedule for the country emerged on Wednesday, pushing its export higher than what it booked for March – from 708, 000bpd to 853, 000bpd.
The Forcados crude oil stream will export 168,000 bpd in April versus 166,000 bpd in March, while the Bonga stream will load 190,000 bpd, up from 153,000 bpd in the previous month.
Spike in Nigeria’s export comes just as the country is deep necked in the euphoria of the re-election of its current President, Muhammed Buhari.
Schedule programme for loading of the country’s oil had faced delay for several weeks due to uncertainties in the election results.
Exports of Qua Iboe will rise to 253,000 barrels per day from 215,000 bpd in March, while exports of Bonny Light will rise to around 242,000 bpd from 174,000 bpd in March.
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Price of the grades is yet to change though. Qua Iboe was last indicated at a premium of $1.85 a barrel to dated Brent.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC’s recent effort at reducing oil glut and shoot up prices, will see it and its partners cut exports by 1.2 million barrels per day.
At 853, 00 barrels per day export, the country is still far behind its target of around 2.3 million barrels per day. However, this could be impossible to achieve as OPEC asked to freeze export at last October’s figure of a little over 1.7million barrels per day.
Exports for the country’s other grades such as Brass River was not included in the schedule.
The country had set oil benchmark for its 2019 national budget as $60 per barrel, whereas, international benchmark oil price, Brent, sits at $66 per barrel on Thursday.
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The country stands to earn at least, $56,298,000 (N20, 308, 940, 520) if oil price remains at $66 in April and at least $51,180,000 (N18, 462, 673, 200) if oil price drops to $60 by April.