Nigeria’s crude oil production rises to 1.5m bpd

Country loses top Africa producer status to Angola

After hitting two-yea low last month due to Niger Delta militant attacks on oil facilities, Nigeria’s crude oil production has managed to increase from the 1.426 million barrels per day in May to 1.523 million barrels per day in June.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which made this disclosure in its July oil and gas report released on Tuesday, noted that the country’s production has increased by 98,000 barrels per day (bpd).

Nigeria has lost its top Africa producer title to Angola, whose production is nearing two million barrels per day.

According to the OPEC report, Angola, which used to be behind Nigeria in terms of crude oil production, is soaring at 1.773 million barrels per day in the June report.

Saudi Arabia has remained the highest producer of crude oil among the OPEC countries with 10.308 million barrels per day in the June report.

The report disclosed that total crude oil production averaged 32.86 mbpd in June, an increase of 264 tbpd over the previous month.

It added that crude oil output increased mostly from Nigeria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Libya and United Arab Emirate while production showed declines in Venezuela and Iraq.

OPEC’s preliminary data indicates that global oil supply increased by 0.40 mbpd to average 94.33 mbpd in June 2016, compared with the previous month.

This, it said, is mainly due to lower oil output from Canada in 2Q16 due to the wildfire, as well as from the US. Non-OPEC oil supply in 2017 is projected to decline by 0.1 mbpd to average 55.9 mbpd.

It said that Brazil and Canada are the main drivers of growth next year while Mexico, the US, and Norway are expected to see declines. OPEC NGLs are expected to grow by 0.15 mbpd in 2017.

Global economic growth in 2017 is forecast at 3.1 per cent, only slightly higher than this year’s growth level, which has been revised down to 3.0 per cent.

Following preliminary consideration of the potential effects of the UK’s referendum vote on leaving the EU, OECD growth is forecast to slow to 1.7 per cent in the coming year from a downwardly revised 1.8 per cent in 2016.

US growth is forecast to only slightly appreciate to 2.1 per cent from 2.0 per cent in 2016, while the Euro-zone is now forecast to slow to 1.2 per cent from downwardly-adjusted 1.5 per cent in the current year. Japan will improve slightly to 0.8 per cent, after an upwardly-adjusted 0.7 per cent in 2016, following the decision to delay the sales tax increase until at least 2019.

India and China are forecast to grow by 7.2 per cent and 6.1 per cent respectively, compared to growth of 7.5 per cent and 6.5 per cent this year. Russia and Brazil are expected to bounce back after a two-year recession and grow by 0.7 per cent and 0.4 per cent, respectively.

Monetary policies across the globe are expected to remain accommodative. Among the many uncertainties in the global economy, the near-term handling of the UK exit decision and the consequences this may have on both the UK and the EU will be a key determinant for the short-term forecast.

Turning to the oil market, oil demand growth for 2017 is expected at 1.2 mbpd, around 0.3 mbpd above the last ten years’ average. “Various assumptions have been considered in the 2017 projection, the most notable are an improvement in global economic activities; higher road transportation fuel consumption due to the strong rebound in vehicle sales in the US, China and India; and demand for petrochemical feed stocks from new projects in US and China”, it added.