Nigeria drops to third spot, as Angola remains Africa’s biggest crude oil producer
Oredola Adeola
Nigeria with its crude oil production in September averaging 1.087 million barrels per day(mbpd), has been displaced for the fifth consecutive month from first to the third position in Africa, as Angola has permanently retained the top spot as the continent’s highest crude oil producer 1.184mb/d, followed by Libya’s 1.152mb/d in the month under review.
This new figure was contained in the survey of monthly the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) output for September 2022.
The September figure declined by 745,000 mb/d barrels lower than the 1.83 mb/d production quota set by the OPEC.
In May and June, July, and August Angola produced more crude oil than Nigeria, despite an increase in the country’s output.
OPEC’s monthly report for September showed that Nigeria’s oil production increased by 30,000 barrels per day (bpd)
Nigeria’s production has reached multi-decade lows in 2022, having suffered a persistent decline since 2020.
There are brighter hopes that the country could return to the first spot in the continent as Shell’s Trans Niger Pipeline and the Forcados terminal are due to resume at the end of October.
EnergyDay on Wednesday reported that Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), the Forcados Oil Terminal would resume export operations by the end of October as it intensifies efforts aimed at curtailing leakages and illegal breaches.
According to secondary sources, total OPEC-13 crude oil production averaged 29.77 mb/d in September, higher by 146,000 barrels per day month-on-month.
“Crude oil output increased mainly in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Libya, and the UAE, while production in Iraq, Venezuela and Iran declined
