Nigeria has continued to edge closer to Angola as her oil production for the month of April rose to 1.484 million Barrels Per Day (bpd) making it the country with the biggest increase in oil production in April.
. This was contained in the monthly report issued by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Country (OPEC) for the month of April released on Thursday, last week.
According to the report, this was the biggest among oil producers as Nigeria makes move to over-take Angola and retain its position as biggest oil producer in Africa.
According to the report, based on direct communication, Nigeria’s oil production jumped from 1.21 million bpd in March to 1.484 million bpd for April.
This means its production recorded an increase of 274,000 barrels for the month of April. The report indicated: “In Nigeria, the Stanbic IBTC Bank Nigeria PMI rose in April to its highest level in 16 months at 53.6, up from 53.0 in March. This improvement was due to a sharp acceleration in new business and output. The survey also demonstrated some easing in input and output price inflation. It also revealed a strong increase in exports by private sector firms for the first time in 16 months in April.” Although, Angola’s production decreased to 1.651 million bpd in April, from 1.652 million bpd in the previous month, it still retained its position as the biggest oil producer in Africa which it has held on to since it overtook it earlier this year.
The renewed militancy in the Niger Delta region that has resulted in bombing of oil and gas pipelines greatly affected Nigeria’s oil production thereby forcing the country to second position in Africa’s oil producing countries. The recent increase in oil production recorded in the month of April may see Nigeria retain its position in a couple of months as Africa’s biggest oil producer.
An online medium had reported that Nigeria’s oil production for the month on March suffered a dip as the country’s output was to 1.269 million barrel per day (BPD) according to the Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) released by OPEC. According to the publication, Nigeria lost 156,900 bdp for the month of March considering the country produced 1.426mbpd in February in spite of the fact that the country has not witnessed militancy attack in a while. The dip in oil production cost Nigeria N82.8 billion which could have funded the expenditure for water resources, put at N85 billion according to the 2017 budget proposal.
OPEC crude oil production decreased by 18,000 bpd, from the previous month to average 31.73 million bpd in April, according to secondary sources.
“Crude oil production declined in the UAE, Libya, Iraq and Iran, but increased in Angola and Saudi Arabia,” the 13-member cartel said in the report.
The producer group raised its forecast for oil supply growth from non-members in 2017 but kept its outlook for global crude demand unchanged at 96.4 million bpd.
OPEC’s revision is largely based on higher production in the United States, where producers who rely on expensive advanced drilling methods have become more profitable as prices rise.
