Nigeria’s crude oil output drops by 64,000 barrels per day in February

Nigeria’s oil output dropped by about 64,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.896 bpd in February 2015 from its January output of 1.96 million bpd going by the current figures released by Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) based on secondary sources in its latest monthly oil market report released Tuesday.

Year-on-year comparison to February 2014 output of 1.928 million bpd showed a drop of 32,000 bpd. Nigeria produced more crude in January despite the many cases of disruptions on the Nembe Creek pipeline and the Trans Forcados oil pipeline which shut out about 410,000 barrels of Nigerian crude per day for close to two weeks. “It is obvious that the shift in elections and the political uncertainty impacted negatively on activities in the oil and gas sector”, an energy analyst told BusinessDay on the sidelines of the ongoing Nigeria Oil and Gas conference in Abuja.

Despite the drop, Nigeria maintained its position as Africa’s number one oil producer in February followed by Angola and Algeria with an output of 1.75 million bpd and 1.11 million bpd respectively. Total OPEC crude oil production averaged 30.02 million bpd in February, a decrease of 0.14 million bp from the previous month. “Crude oil output decreased mostly from Iraq, Nigeria and Libya, while production showed increases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. OPEC crude oil production, not including Iraq, stood at 26.70 million bpd in February, down by 0.06 million bpd from the previous month”, the report said.

Libyan crude exports dropped to no more than 200,000 bpd in February because of disruptions at fields and terminals. Loadings of light sweet Caspian were also lower, while weather- related disruptions delayed crude loading in both the Black Sea and Iraq. According to the report, global oil supply decreased by 0.06 million bpd to average 93.57 million bpd in February 2015 compared with the previous month. A decline in non-OPEC supply as well as OPEC crude oil production in February curtailed global oil output. The share of OPEC crude oil in total global production decreased slightly to 32.1 percent in February, compared with the previous month.

The OPEC Reference Basket (ORB) rebounded in February by its largest percentage rise since December 2008, reflecting gains in the major benchmarks as prompt demand improved in European and Asian markets amid healthy refining economics, although oversupply worries continued to overwhelm oil markets.