In its monthly oil market report released on Tuesday, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), says Nigeria’s crude oil production for August declined to 972 thousand barrels per day (t/bpd).
It represents a 112 thousand barrels per day drop when compared to 1.084 million barrels per day for the month of July 2022.
Total crude oil production from OPEC members averaged 29.65 million barrels per day in August 2022, higher by 618 thousand barrels per day, month-on-month. Crude oil output increased mainly in Libya and Saudi Arabia, while production in Nigeria declined.
Economies of OPEC member countries like Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates observed an upward trend, largely due to supportive economic policies, large-scale energy investments and gains made from higher energy prices.
Global oil demand
OPEC projected that the global oil demand was expected to grow by 3.1 million barrels per day in 2022 and by 2.7 million barrels per day in 2023.
According to the report, global economic growth forecast for both 2022 and 2023 remained unchanged at 3.1%, which matches the average pre-pandemic growth level of around 3.1% between 2009 and 2019.
OPEC says that the demand for its crude in 2022 remained unchanged from the August monthly report, to stand at 28.9 million barrels per day, which is around 0.9 million barrels per day higher than in 2021. Demand for OPEC crude in 2023 remained unchanged from the August monthly report to stand at 29.8 mb/d, which is around 0.9 mb/d higher than in 2022.
What stakeholders are saying
- Mele Kyari, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited has recently said that Nigeria is losing 95% of oil output to criminals at oil hub Bonny, and Nigeria can only secure 3,000 barrels out of 239,000 barrels injected into the pipeline from Bonny Terminal.
- Oil and Gas Analyst, Ifeanyi Izeze attributes Nigeria’s declining crude oil production even in the midst of higher oil prices to oil theft. He says that the only way Nigeria can get back to normal production is by checking the magnitude of crude oil theft from our offshore facilities.
- Izeze told Nairametrics that most of the stealing occurs on offshore facilities, not onshore.
- “Our main oil is being shipped on gigantic ships that are able to carry 2 million barrels per day,” he told this reporter.
- Izeze says that checks and balancing tools are absent in Nigeria’s Oil and Gas industry, which is why Nigeria faces crude oil theft. He called to question the figures being doled out by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as the number of barrels being stolen on a daily basis by unknown people in the country.
- “Are the crude oil thieves truly unknown? What if those in charge are guilty of the missing crude oil barrels? We do not have the tools to inspect and monitor our oil facilities. Oil and Gas agencies are not equipped to carry out effective monitoring of these oil assets, which is why the crude oil theft has not been addressed,” he says.
- Dan D. Kunle, an Oil and Gas Analyst told Nairametrics that since 2015, no reasonable investment has been put into upstream production and exploitation, so it will be difficult to meet OPEC quota.
- “According to him, existing oil assets are not being maintained and these assets are declining. Until investments are made, production will continue to decline,” he says.
- Addressing oil theft, Kunle says crude oil theft issues are beclouded in misinformation and it will be difficult to get to the root of what is happening in Nigeria’s oil sector.
