OpeOluwani Akintayo
19 January 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Nigeria’s rig count decreased from 29 in November 2017 to 28 in December 2017, data obtained from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC has shown.
Rig count is a country’s weekly census of the number of drilling rigs actively exploring for or developing oil or natural gas.
According to the just-released OPEC’s Monthly Oil Market Report, MOMR for December, as at December 2015, Nigeria’s rig count was 30.
By December 2016, it had decreased to 25 rigs, while by the end of 2017, it had shot up to 28, making a differential increase of 3 rigs between 2016 and 2017.
A breakdown of what transpired in Nigeria’s deepwater drilling activities in 2017, showed that in first quarter 2017, Nigeria had a total of 27 rig drilling activities, increasing to 28 rigs in the second quarter.
Then in the third quarter, it had dropped again to 27 rigs, and 28 rigs in the fourth quarter.
In November, drilling activities rose to 29 on rig count, dropping again to 28 in December.
As at December 2017, Nigeria had one of the lowest rig count activities among all OPEC members.
Algeria had 50 rig drilling activities in December, Angola 2, Ecuador 5, Equatorial Guinea 1, Gabon 2, Iran 61, Iraq 54, Kuwait 53, Libya 1, Qatar 6, Saudi Arabia 142, United Arab Emirates 53, and Venezuela 92.
