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Nigeria lost a total of N500bn in revenue in January as a result of low crude oil production in January, according to findings by The PUNCH.
Shipping data obtained from Refinitiv Eikon, a company that tracks export flows, showed that the country’s production has yet to fully recover, as it exported 1.2mb/d as against the 1.6mb/d quota assigned to it by the Organisation for the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
An export of 1.2mb/d brings January’s total export to 37.2 million barrels, as against 49.6 million expected if it had exported 1.6mb/d.
Nigeria’s crude grade, Bonny Light, sold for $89 per barrel in January- +1 above Brent International, which was sold for $88 per barrel.
This means that the country may have raked in N1.5tn from the production of 37. 2 million barrels exported in January as against expected N2tn revenue if it had met OPEC’s production.
The development means the country lost about N500bn over its failure to meet OPEC’s 1.6mb/d quota.
Nigeria was not the only country that fell short of OPEC’s production quota.
The Refinitiv Eikon data showed that Iraqi exports also declined due to fewer exports from its southern fields.
While Saudi Arabia was also thought by some sources in the survey to have trimmed exports, output in the United Arab Emirates increased by about 10,000 bpd.
Among Libya, Iran and Venezuela, the three producers exempt from OPEC cuts, Venezuela’s output was slightly higher and there was a small decline in Iran, which registered a surge in exports in December, according to the survey.
OPEC pumped 28.87 million barrels per day the survey found, down 50,000 bpd from December. In September, OPEC output hit its highest since 2020.
OPEC had in November called for a 2 million bpd cut to the OPEC+ output target, of which about 1.27 million bpd was meant to come from the 10 participating OPEC countries.
The 10 OPEC members that were required to cut production pumped 920,000 bpd below the group’s January target, the survey found. The shortfall in December was 780,000 bpd.
With the drop in output last month, compliance with the agreement rose to 172 per cent of pledged cuts, against 161 per cent in December.
Both Nigeria and Angola were said to lack the capacity to pump at the agreed levels.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the state-owned oil firm, NNPCL, Mele Kyari, had blamed low production on crude oil theft as a result of pipeline vandalism.
According to him, Nigeria was losing as much as 900, 000 barrels per day to theft.
A report by The PUNCH chronicled how the country’s export had crashed by 83 per cent, within the space of 10 years- from 2012 through 2021.
Nigeria’s oil export suffered setbacks that saw its production crash to around 900, 000 barrels per day last September, according to OPEC data.
In December, Chief Upstream Investment Officer, NNPCL Upstream Investment Management Services, Bala Wunti, said the country’s dwindling oil production was back up to about 1.6mb/d.
“Crude theft affects all architecture that funds the country. When the oil theft reached its peak, everything including gas production was affected,” he said.
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