Advertisement

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has revealed that Nigeria ended 2022 as Africa’s largest oil producer.

According to OPEC, Nigeria in the month of December recorded a four percent increase in oil production to 1.235 million barrels per day, from 1.186 mb/d in November 2022.

Advertisement

While on Year-on-Year, YoY performance, the nation’s oil output also increased to 1.235 mb/d in December 2022, from 1.197 mb/d in the corresponding period of 2021.

OPEC disclosed this in its January 2023 Monthly Oil Market Report, MOMR obtained by Ripples Nigeria from its website.

In 2022, Nigeria’s oil production fell heavily amid reports of increased oil theft. In fact, NNPC reported that it lost 95 percent of oil production to thieves at Bonny Terminal, Rivers State.

Advertisement

While this happened other oil producers in Africa and other parts of the world reported large windfall from oil sales.

However, OPEC in its report noted that Nigeria succeeded in beating Angola, its close rival that produced 1.088 mb/d in December 2022, to become the leading African producer while Equatorial Guinea came last with 54,000 bp/d.

“Nigeria did not meet its 1.8 mb/d OPEC quota during the period even though the nation has the capacity to produce an additional 300,000 – 400,000 bpd of condensate,” OPEC stated.

(Ripples)

Advertisement