Findings from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries report macroeconomic has shown that Nigeria’s export capacity dropped by 83 per cent between 2020 and 2021.
According to the data, the country’s monthly production capacity in 2012 was roughly 95,620 million barrels per month, or slightly more than 3 million barrels per day.
It fell to 90, 546 million barrels per day, or 2.9 million barrels per day, in 2013 and further fell to 75, 196 million barrels per day, or 2.4 million barrels per day, in 2014.
The nation’s oil production capacity further decreased to 41, 168 million barrels per month in 2015 and 27, 295 million barrels per month in 2016 at a rate of 880 000 barrels per day, but the trend changed and rose to 37, 983 million barrels per month in 2017.
Recall that there was a worldwide recession between 2014 and 2016, which had a negative effect on emerging nations.
During this time, militancy in the Niger Delta caused vandalism, which severely hampered Nigeria’s ability to produce crude oil.
In contrast, it increased to 54, 513 million barrels at 1.7 mb/d in 2018.
The nation’s oil output continued to decline, reaching 45, 106 million barrels per month in 2019 and 27, 730 million barrels at 894, 000 barrels per day in 2020.
Production resumed in 2021 and settled at 41, 378 million barrels per month at 1.3 million barrels per day.
For a while, the nation had struggled to fulfill its OPEC quota.
In 2020, Nigeria received a quota from OPEC of 1.4 mb/d, followed by 1.5 mb/d in 2021 and 1.7 mb/d in 2022.
Nigeria’s oil export had faced difficulties when the product dropped abruptly to about 900,000 barrels per day in September, according to OPEC, until lately when major cartels of crude oil theft were dismantled in the Niger Delta region.
The nation’s declining oil output, according to the Chief Upstream Investment Officer, Bala Wunti, at NNPCL Upstream Investment Management Services, was back up to roughly 1.6 million barrels per day (mb/d) in December.
He said, “Crude theft affects all architecture that funds the country. When the oil theft reached its peak, everything including gas production was affected.
“One, we have security agencies in which the navy, the police, and everyone within that space was involved. The second is the regulator’s angle. At this stage, all regulators were made to fully be part of the effort he thirdhird is the operators’ angle. And, of course, all operators were involved. The fourth angle is the community angle in which all impacted communities have to be brought under the umbrella of a structured arrangement in the collective effort against crude oil theft. In all, these efforts were able to do three things; Detect, deter and respond appropriately.”
