Nigeria is close to 1.5 million barrels of oil per day, still far from the theoretical maximums
Nigerian oil production, besieged by rampant theft and sabotage, has hit its highest in more than three years, thanks to a concerted effort to crack down on targeted attacks and theft rings.
According to OPEC data, the country's output reached 1.476 million barrels per day (bpd) in February, after hitting a decades-long low in the second half of 2022, when it fell below 1 million bpd.
These are the data contained in the monthly report, although, unfortunately, there is some confusion on the matter. In the following graph you can see the production in 2021-23 with the minimum being reached
Daily oil production in Nigeria, with the lowest in 2022
Since then, the government has pursued a more efficient and aggressive policy to crack down on pipeline theft and sabotage, hiring private security firms to support military efforts to guard the facilities. Furthermore, the state has gone so far as to destroy small illegal refineries as a demonstration of repression. As of this week, Nigeria is pumping more than it has since December 2020. Nigeria has consistently failed to produce its quota in the OPEC+ deal.
The combination of pipeline vandalism and oil theft with a lack of investment in production capacity has made Nigeria the biggest laggard in crude oil production in the OPEC+ alliance. Oil theft and pipeline vandalism have long plagued Nigeria's upstream oil and gas industry, driving majors out of the country and often triggering force majeure at major crude export terminals. Nigeria's oil production is about 1 million bpd below capacity.
The Government cited the lack of investment, the lack of sources of financing due to the energy transition and insecurity among the factors underlying the situation. Unhampered by theft and sabotage, Nigeria has the permitted technical capacity to produce approximately 2.5 million barrels of oil per day,” according to Nigerian oil executives. Nigeria's state energy company NNPC said earlier this week it had destroyed more than 6,000 illegal refineries processing the stolen crude, Reuters reported.
State-owned energy company NNPC Limited has so far destroyed more than 6,000 illegal refineries used to process stolen crude oil.
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The article Nigeria is close to 1.5 million barrels of oil per day, still far from the theoretical maximum comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-nigeria-sfiora-15-milioni-di-barili-di-petrolio-al-giorno-ancora-lontana-dai-massimi-teorici/ on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 08:00:11 +0000.