[BOOM] Nigeria Post Largest Drop In Output Among OPEC Countries In November

OPEC has released its monthly oil market report for the month of November showing crude oil production from Nigeria fell by 205,000 barrels per day in November. This was the biggest drop among OPEC countries for the month with Saudi Arabia coming at a distant second with 89.9 thousand barrels per day.

OPEC, in its latest monthly oil market report, put crude oil production from Nigeria at 1.607 million bpd in November based on direct communication, down from 1.812 million bpd in October. Meanwhile Angola, Africa’s second largest producer of Crude saw output drop to 1.722 million bpd last month from 1.762 million bpd in October. Angola has in recent years come neck and neck with Nigeria threatening to usurp Nigeria as Africa’s largest exporter. The data reveal Angola surpassed Nigeria in oil production for the first and second quarter of 2015.

The report also point out that December official selling prices for Nigeria’s crude hit their lowest level in more than 10 years. North Sea oil was also competing with light sweet Nigerian crude, which has a big overhang of cargoes available for export. Nigeria’s rig count remained at 28 for the month same as it had been in October 2015. Rig count is still 8 down from the 36 recorded in 2014.

According to the 2015 Budget performance, Nigeria’s crude oil production as at September 2015 was 2.0449 million bpd compared to the 2.782 million bpd budgeted.  Analysts surveyed by Nairametrics opine that demand for Nigeria’s bonny light crude has dropped and as such traders don’t want to hold Nigerian cargoes. With Libya set to commence production next year, it is more likely that things could get worse than better.

Apart from volume constraints, the price of oil is also expected to remain depressed next year as analysts believe the days of $100 per barrel are long gone. However, OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri was quoted on Tuesday as saying that the price of oil will still rise. According to him

“I’ve been in the oil business all my life. I saw six cycles – I saw very high price, I saw low price, and this is one of them. This will not continue,” Badri said at the first OPEC-India Energy dialogue in New Delhi. In a few months or a year or so this will change,”