By Sunday Elom
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) December 2021 report has said that Nigeria lost about N74.51bn in oil earnings as the country’s crude oil production declined in the month under review.
The report showed that Nigeria produced an average of 1.19 million barrels per day in December. This shows a decline from 1.26 million bpd which the country produced in November 2021.
According to the OPEC data, it means that Nigeria lost an average of 78,000 barrels daily in the month under review. The sum of the daily loss translates to a total of 2.418 million barrels in the month.
The average price of Brent, the international benchmark against which Nigeria’s oil is priced, was $74.17 per barrel in December 2021.
Calculating Nigeria’s loss at the official exchange rate of N415.45 per a dollar, it means that the loss of 2.418 million barrels of crude oil in December reduced Nigeria’s earnings by about N74.51bn.
OPEC’s report further indicates that in the Q1 of 2021, Nigeria’s oil production stood at an average of 1.32 million bpd.
But this rose to 1.34 million bpd in Q2. However, the rise did last long as the country’s crude oil production dropped to 1.27 million bpd in Q3.
According to OPEC, the decline in oil production in Nigeria continued in the Q4 of 2021 as the average crude oil production dropped to 1.23 million bpd.
The persistent cases of pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta and the oil leakage recorded in Santa Barbara, Nembe of Bayelsa State could have been major contributing factors for the country’s continued oil production decline in the last quarter of 2021.
Recall that in November last year, the federal government through the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NPRC), announced that it was investigating the cause of the oil spill in Santa Barbara which occurred in a facility operated by Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company.
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