Nigeria’s oil output dropped further in September as some onshore production ground almost to a halt, according to government data.
Data from latest crude oil and condensate production data for September 2022 published by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) indicated that the country produced a daily average of 1.14 million barrels of crude oil and condensate last month, about 42,000 barrels lower than in August,
Output has declined steadily since the first quarter of 2020, when Nigeria produced roughly double the amount, according to the data.
The government blames rampant theft on the pipelines that crisscross the Niger Delta for shutting down wells and killing off investment. Production of three major export grades – Bonny, Brass and Forcados – has shriveled in recent months, with none of them accounting for more than 8,000 barrels per day in September.
Nigeria aims to add 500,000 barrels a day to its production by the end of November, mainly by resuming operations at Shell Plc’s Trans-Niger pipeline and Forcados terminal, Mele Kyari, chief executive of the state-owned energy company, said this week.
The data also showed that crude oil production declined to an average of 937,766 barrels per day in September.
The production figure is 3.56 per cent or 34,628 bpd lower compared to the August 2022 output at 972,394 bpd.
The latest figures represents the third consecutive month of decline in production.
It is also lower than the 1.8 million bpd production quota set by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
According to NUPRC’s data, with the addition of condensate, oil output plunged to a total of 1.14 million bpd from 1.18 million posted last month.
Condensate is a mixture of light liquid hydrocarbons, similar to a light (high API) crude oil — usually separated out of a natural gas stream at the point of production (field separation) when the temperature and pressure of the gas are dropped to atmospheric conditions.
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