Nigeria’s Daily Crude Oil Production Drops 230,000bpd To 1.49 Million Barrels In Q1

Nigeria crude oil production has suffered a huge decline to settle at 1.49 million barrels per day in the first quarter of 2021, the worst in over seven years.

Oil production in the first quarter of 2022 was worse than the Covid-19 era when production fell to 1.56mbpd, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

The NBS said it is also worse than the 1.5mbpd recorded in the last quarter of 2021.

The decrease is linked to crude oil theft and vandalism of oil infrastructure.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd had reported that crude oil thefts in 2021 reached 200,000 barrels per day.

According to the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), oil thieves stole crude oil worth $3.27bn.

The NBS said, “The nation in the first quarter of 2022 recorded an average daily oil production of 1.49 million barrels per day (mbpd), lower than the daily average production of 1.72mbpd recorded in the same quarter of 2021 by 0.23mbpd and lower than the fourth quarter 2021 production volume of 1.50mbpd by 0.01mbpd.”

Real growth of the oil sector fell 26.04 per cent (year-on-year) in Q1 2022 indicating a decrease of 23.83 percentage points relative to the rate recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2021.

The bureau said when compared to the last quarter of 2021, growth decreased by 17.99 percentage points when compared to the –8.06 per cent recorded in Q4 2021.

The NBS said the sector contributed 6.63 per cent of the country’s first quarter GDP which was N17.35trn.

“Quarter-on-Quarter, the oil sector recorded a growth rate of 9.11 per cent in Q1 2022.

“The Oil sector contributed 6.63 per cent to the total real GDP in Q1 2022, down from the figures recorded in the corresponding period of 2021 and up compared to the preceding quarter, where it contributed 9.25 per cent and 5.19 per cent respectively,” it added.