By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Indian oil imports slashed 7 per cent to 3.9 million barrels per day (bpd) in July, meaning lower revenue for Nigeria whose oil sale to its largest market accounted for 16.79 per cent of its total oil revenue in the first quarter of 2021 (Q1 2021).
In August, Nigeria’s oil production dropped 90,000 bpd to a five-year low of 1.43 million bpd, despite its output being raised by 290,000 bpd by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Bloomberg reports OPEC as saying in its latest data that it was actually pumping about 10 per cent below its overall quota as some members “notably Angola and Nigeria suffer from deteriorating production capacity and technical disruptions.”
OPEC’s 13 members averaged 27.11 million bpd in August, according to the report. Saudi Arabia’s rose 200,000 bpd to 9.63 million, Iraq ramped up 110,000 bpd to 4.08 million.
OPEC members agreed last week to continue lifting production towards pre-pandemic levels.
Nigeria’s oil exports fall 42%
Nigeria’s crude oil exports fell 41.9 per year-on-year (YoY) in Q1 2021, as contained in balance of payment report by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), per Nairametrics.
Crude oil and gas export receipts amounted to $6.48 billion in Q1 2021 compared to $11.1 billion in Q1 2020. It also represents a 16.4 per cent drop against $7.7 billion in Q4 2020.
Crude oil and gas export sales of $54.5 billion in 2019 accounted for about 84 per cent of export earnings but declined to $31.4 billion in 2020 as coronavirus triggered a global economic lockdown and crashed oil prices to below zero in Q2 2020.
OPEC member countries have had to endure year-long collective crude oil cuts to help limit supplies, shoring up prices.
While this has contributed to the stabilisation of oil prices, member counties have seen their revenues plummet as they cannot push out as much volumes as they would have preferred.
However, OPEC agreed last week to increase production by an initial 400,000 bpd per country which in turn raised Nigeria’s oil output from about 1.4 million bpd to 1.8 million bpd by April 2022.