Exploration in Nigeria’s oil industry has suffered a setback following a drop in the country’s oil rig count, a development which has put Nigeria behind Angola and Libya in the list of Oil production countries.
With this development coupled with other setbacks like crude oil theft, the country’s crude oil production output nosedived to 972,394 barrels per day in August 2022 from 1,083,899 barrels per day produced in July, a report by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has indicated.
Globally, the upstream sector of the petroleum industry uses the rig count as a major index for measuring exploration and other activities.
Earlier this year, Nigeria’s rig count was six, which was very low and the rig count figure later progressed steadily to hit 11 four months later in April.
This figure was sustained till July when the industry started developing some setbacks and the number further dropped to 10.
According to OPEC, Angola and Libya produced higher volumes during the same period and overtook Nigeria.
OPEC’s September 2022 report also showed that Angola became Africa’s highest crude oil producer for the month under review with an average production of 1.187 million barrels per day.
