By Eyo Nsima
Nigeria’s oil output dropped month-on-month, MoM, by 2 per cent to 1.517 million barrels per day, bpd in March 2023, from 1.547 million bpd recorded in February 2023.
The output had risen by 3.5 percent in February 2023 to 1.54 million bpd, from 1.494 million barrels per day recorded in January, thus raising hope for the continued rise in the coming months.
Hover, in its latest report obtained by The Daily, www.thedaily-ng.com, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, disclosed that the output dropped for the first this year.
The Daily, www.thedaily-ng.com learnt that the drop in production has affected Nigeria’s ability to meet its 1.69 million bpd target for the 2023 budget which was also benchmarked at $75 per barrel as well as the 1.8 million bpd quota of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC.
Meanwhile, the price of oil has surged to over $85 per barrel, from about $84 per barrel recorded last week on OPEC oil cut.
The Executive Director of Emmanuel Egbogal Foundation, Professor Wumi Iledare, recently said: “Despite the issues and problems staring the market in the face, this is just a blimp; the trend in crude oil prices is upward bound.”
Recently, the monitoring committee of OPEC had reviewed the crude oil production data for the months of January and February 2023, noting the overall conformity for participating OPEC and non-OPEC countries of the Declaration of Cooperation (DoC)
OPEC stated: “The Committee reviewed the crude oil production data for the months of January and February 2023 and noted the overall conformity for participating OPEC and non-OPEC countries of the Declaration of Cooperation (DoC).
“The Members of the JMMC reaffirmed their commitment to the DoC which extends to the end of 2023 as decided at the 33rd OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting (ONOMM) on 5th of October 2022 and urged all participating countries to achieve full conformity and adhere to the compensation mechanism.
“The Meeting noted the following voluntary production adjustment announced on 2 April 2023 by Saudi Arabia (500 thousand b/d); Iraq (211 thousand b/d); United Arab Emirates (144 thousand b/d); Kuwait (128 thousand b/d); Kazakhstan (78 thousand b/d); Algeria (48 thousand b/d); Oman (40 thousand b/d); and Gabon (8 thousand b/d) starting May until the end of 2023. These will be in addition to the production adjustments decided at the 33rd OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting.
“The above will be in addition to the announced voluntary adjustment by the Russian Federation of 500 thousand barrels per day until the end of 2023, which will be from the average production levels as assessed by the secondary sources for the month of February 2023.
“Accordingly, this will bring the total additional voluntary production adjustments by the above-mentioned countries to 1.66 million b/d. The Meeting noted that this is a precautionary measure aimed at supporting the stability of the oil market.”
