OPEC: Nigeria’s Oil Output Rose by 6% in January
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) says Nigeria’s oil output increased by six percent to 1.39 million barrels per day (bpd) in January 2022.
According to the OPEC’s Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) for January released on Thursday, Nigeria struggled to pump 1.399 million bpd out of the total allocation, quoting primary sources.
According to the report, crude oil output increased mainly in Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait, while production in Venezuela, Libya, and Iraq declined.
The figures showed that Nigeria recorded about 81,000 barrels per day compared to 1.31 million barrels per day in December 2021.
The oil cartel said prices were supported by strong oil market fundamentals amid COVID-19 Omicron variant fears and geopolitical risks.
“The OPEC Reference Basket increased $11.03, or 14.8 percent, to settle at $85.41/b in January, its highest monthly value since September 2014,” OPEC said.
Similarly, crude oil futures prices increased on both sides of the Atlantic with the ICE Brent front-month up $10.77, or 14.4 percent, in January to average $85.57/b and NYMEX WTI rising by $11.29, or 15.7 percent, to average $82.98/b. As a result, the Brent/WTI futures spread narrowed by 52¢ to an average of $2.59/b.
“The market structure of all three crude benchmarks — ICE Brent, NYMEX WTI and DME Oman — strengthened significantly in January over the previous month as market perception of the outlook for the supply-demand balance improved.”
Reminiscing the country’s crude oil output against the backdrop of OPEC quota, for some months now, Nigeria has been unable to meet its required share of the OPEC quota, being 1.683 million bpd in December, 1.701 million bpd in February, and now 1.718 in March.
Poor upstream infrastructure, sabotage, oil theft as well as lack of investment have been blamed for the ongoing default.
However, in spite of the increasing demand pressure, OPEC countries and their allies had agreed to continue feeding a modest amount of additional oil into the market.
Oil prices are currently hovering at seven-year highs of $90 a barrel, prompting expectations from high consuming nations on OPEC to wet the market and bring down rising prices.
