Angola overtook Nigeria to emerge as Africa’s top crude oil producer for the month of April, according to data from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has shown.
According to the April 2023 Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) published by the oil cartel, Angola recorded 1.06 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude production in April, up from 972,000 bpd in March.
But Nigeria posted production of 999,000 bpd in April compared to 1.3 million bpd in March. The April production figure represented the lowest production rate the nation has recorded in 2023.
On an annual basis, Nigeria’s production level also indicated a 16.7 percent drop to 999,000 bpd in April 2023, from 1.2 million bpd in the corresponding April 2022 period.
“Nigeria’s economy faced challenges gaining momentum in the first quarter of 2023, with subdued business activity and consumer spending, along with high input cost inflation and lower employment levels compared to the previous year. the oil cartel said in the report. .
In recent years, Nigeria has seen an increase in incidents of pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft in its oil-producing region, a development that has worsened the nation’s revenue challenge.
The recent drop in the country’s crude output comes at a time when the Nigerian government postponed a June deadline for the removal of subsidies.
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Earlier in the month, data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) showed that Nigeria produced an average of 998,602 barrels of crude oil per day in April. The figure represented a drop in production from the 1.2 million bpd recorded in March.
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OPEC in its report noted that oil production from the 13 cartel members averaged 28.60 million barrels per day in April, 191,000 bpd less than in March.
The report found that OPEC Gulf producers (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates) met production targets under the OPEC+ deal with steady production.
Three producers exempt from supply cuts – Libya, Iran and Venezuela – also registered variable production. While Iranian production was stable, Libyan production decreased slightly and Venezuelan production increased slightly, boosting global supply.
In early April, OPEC agreed to cut production by around 1.27 million bpd as part of a total reduction of 2 million bpd promised by OPEC+ in 2022.