A US agency, Energy Information Administration has said Nigeria was no longer Africa’s highest crude oil producer due to disruptions, which were threatening its production outputs.
In its latest report on ‘Country Analysis Brief: Nigeria, EIA said Angola had overtaken Nigeria due to unplanned production outages.
“For many years, more crude oil was produced in Nigeria than in any other country in Africa. However, unplanned production outages—or disruptions—in Nigeria have, at times, resulted in its crude oil production falling below that of Angola, the second-highest producing country in Africa. Disruptions remain a significant and persistent downside risk to Nigeria’s crude oil production,” the report said.
The EIA further explained that Angola’s production output surpassed that of Nigeria in April.
“In the third quarter of 2022, operators of the Trans Niger pipeline and the Forcados export terminal closed their facilities for repairs. The closures triggered a sharp drop in Nigeria’s crude oil output, from 1.1 million barrels per day (b/d) in the second quarter to below 1 million b/d in the third quarter. Nigeria’s production recovered by the beginning of 2023, but the oil workers’ strike disrupted production again in April 2023. Crude oil production in Nigeria fell to slightly more than 1 million b/d in April of this year, dropping below Angola’s production, which was estimated at 1.1 million b/d that month,” the report said.
Checks by The PUNCH on the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries production for April revealed that while Angola produced 1.063 million barrels per day in April, Nigeria’s output was a mere 999, 000 barrels per day.
The agency then highlighted steps already taken by the Nigerian government to make the country more attractive for oil and natural gas investment.
Source:Upshort reports
