By Ishaya Ibrahim
Acting News Editor
Nigeria’s crude oil production is still lower than 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd), despite more than six months of ceasefire in the Niger Delta.
This is far below the 2.2 million export quota.
Data obtained from the Bloomberg Terminal shows that in March, Nigeria exported 1.6 million bpd, lower than February’s figure of 1.7 million.
The 2017 budget was benchmark at $44.5 per barrel (pb), with output anticipated at 2.2 million bpd.
With real production lower than 1.7 million bpd, the N7.3 trillion budget currently tossed around by National Assembly (NASS) members, is threatened.
Oil receipts are expected to contribute N1.985 trillion to the budget.
On Friday April 7, Brent crude, Nigeria’s major export, was traded at $55.28pb. The price has been steady above $50 since May 2016.
Despite this gain in oil price, the shortfall in production quota deprives Nigeria of the advantage it desperately needs to wriggle out of recession and shore up external reserves.
Monthly cash inflow if Nigeria was producing 2.2 million bpd would be $3.5 billion. But with the shortfall, it made $2.4 billion in March.
The earnings though would be shared on the basis of a Joint Venure Agreement (JVA) in which Nigeria owns 55 percent.
From 2016, the Niger Delta Avengers embarked on a series of attacks against major oil installations, crippling oil output to its lowest of 1.4 bpd in August that year.
At the time, the federal government blamed the militants for Nigeria’s production output woes.
But former Petroleum Minister, Tam David-West told TheNiche in an interview published on May 22, 2016 that the government was being economical with the truth.
He said the reason Nigeria was doing badly in meeting its crude oil production quota was because the government had serially reneged in contributing its joint venture funding which has inhibited investment in off shore oil production.
“Let IbeKachikwu (petroleum minister) deny or confirm whether some oil companies are divesting from Nigeria silently.
“They are leaving Nigeria. We cannot produce 2.2 million barrels per day not only because of Niger Delta militancy,” David-West said.
“Some oil companies are slowly and silently slowing down their investments in Nigeria because the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) does not encourage oil investments.”
Even with a new Joint Venture Cash Call agreement signed last December to enable Nigeria exit the arrears of $6.8 billion, experts in the sector said the government has not stabilisedthe sector.
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Group Manager, Corporate Communication, Garbadeen Mohammed, did not respond to a text message seeking clarification on the disparity between claim by the NNPC that is produced 2.1 million bpd in March and the 1.6 million bpd Bloomberg published.