Nigeria has lost its position as the largest oil producer in Africa as its crude oil production for August was below 1 million bpd, making Angola emerge with the largest volume in oil production in the region.
The Oil production Status Report from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission shows that Nigeria’s crude oil production in August was a staggering 972,394 bpd.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s survey of OPEC monthly output in August shows that Angola rolled out 1.17 million barrels average daily output, which is more than its survey of Nigeria’s output of 1.13 million barrels. Highlighting that Angola last overtook Nigeria in oil production in April 2017 when both nations were pumping about 500,000 barrels a day or more.
Notably, the alarming crude oil theft in Nigeria is having a severe impact on the country’s production capacity with economic risks still clearly tilted to the downside.
Oil theft in Nigeria has exacerbated the effect of insufficient investment In the country’s oil sector, making the production levels reach a multi-decade low this year.
With this situation, Nigeria will find it increasingly difficult to meet its production quota from OPEC and may be overtaken by other African oil producers who are bracing up their production. Bloomberg’s survey also revealed that Libya made an average daily output of 1.08 million barrels of crude a day in August.
Rate Captain reported how the oil workers association, PENGASSAN, stated that the activities of pipeline vandalism are seriously weighing on the operation of oil companies. The association rallied yesterday to call the government’s attention to a prompt remedy.
