Nigeria’s oil production crashed by about 14.94 million barrels in the second quarter of this year, data obtained from the latest Monthly Oil Market Report of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries for June 2022 showed.
An analysis of figures released by OPEC and the average cost of crude in Q2 2022 obtained from global oil price reports, indicated that Nigeria’s oil earnings plunged by about N703.76bn, being the worth of the 14. 94 million barrels of crude that was lost during the review period.
In OPEC’s crude oil production data based on direct communication from its 13-member nations, the organisation stated that in the first quarter of this year, Nigeria produced 1.299 million barrels of oil per day.
But this dropped to 1.133 million barrels per day in the second quarter, indicating a plunge of 166,000 barrels per day.
This implies that for the estimated 90-day period in Q2 2022, the country could not produce or lost about 14.94 million barrels of crude oil.
Data obtained from the global statistical firm, Statistica, showed that the average prices of crude in April, May and June this year were $104.58/barrel, $113.34/barrel and $122.71/barrel respectively.
This implies that the average for the quarter under review is $113.54/barrel. Therefore by losing 14.94 million barrels in Q2, 2022, Nigeria’s oil earnings plunged by about $1.696bn (N703.96bn at the official exchange rate of N415/$).
The Federal Government as well as operators in the oil sector have repeatedly decried the plunge in Nigeria’s oil production, as they often attribute it act of vandalism by oil thieves.
In his reaction to the concern, the Managing Director, Seplat Energy Plc, Roger Brown, said there was a need for more synergy between the public and the private sectors to address this issue.
