End is not really in sight to Nigeria’s revenue crisis strongly tied to shortfalls in the oil sector. This is because oil production has continued to drop owing to thieving.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) said in its latest crude oil and condensate production data for September 2022, that Nigeria’s crude oil production dropped to an average of 937,766 barrels per day (bpd) in September.
According to the data reported by TheCable, the production figure is 3.56 percent or 34,628 bpd lower compared to the August 2022 output at 972,394 bpd, which represents a third consecutive all-time low in production.
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The data goes on to reveal that with the addition of condensate, oil output plunged to a total of 1.14 million bpd from 1.18 million posted last month.
Condensate is a mixture of light liquid hydrocarbons, similar to a light (high API) crude oil — usually separated out of a natural gas stream at the point of production (field separation) when the temperature and pressure of the gas are dropped to atmospheric conditions.
The latest decrease adds to the sequence of drops in oil production that has been consistent since early this year. TheCable noted that in January, February, March, April, and May, the country’s crude oil production averaged 1.39 million bpd, 1.25 million bpd, 1.24 million bpd, 1.22 million bpd, and 1.02 million bpd, respectively. Also, crude oil production averaged 1.16 million bpd and 1.08 million bpd in June and July, respectively.
The NUPRC’s data for September underscores the height of the government’s helplessness in the face of vandalism and oil theft sabotaging Nigeria’s economy.
The N20.51 trillion 2023 Appropriation Bill presented last week before national assembly by President Muhammad Buhari is expected to incur N10.78 trillion deficit as a result of the oil revenue drop.
Nigeria is said to be losing nearly half of its oil production to thieves. Last week, the chief executive officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Mele Kyari, announced the discovery of an illegal 4-kilometre (km) pipeline from Forcados terminal to the sea, and a loading port he said had operated for nine years.
“Every two days, you are talking of almost $150 million down the drain, that’s what the nation is losing as we speak,” Kyari had said.
He further said Nigeria was suffering from underproduction to the tune of 600,000 bpd which largely falls short of the 1.8 million bpd production quota set by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Though the NNPCL has launched a full-scale war against oil thieves, the result may take a while to be noticed.