October 16, 2024

Nigeria’s crude oil exploration slowed year-on-year in September 2024, due to low investment in the upstream petroleum sector, according to a newly released report by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) analysed by Channels Television.

Data provided by Direct Sources, according to OPEC, said crude oil production dropped marginally from 1,352 million barrels per day in August to 1, 324 million barrels per day in September 2024.

Channels Television reports that, in the latest October 2024 Monthly Oil Market Report, OPEC also said Nigeria’s number of rigs deployed for exploration dropped from 17 recorded at the beginning of 2024, to 14 as of September 2024.

A decrease in the number of rigs means low interest and investment in exploration, as previous reports pointed to various divestment pursuits of International Oil Companies (IOCs) from the country.

According to OPEC, Algeria emerged as the highest nation in exploration with 43 rigs while Equatorial Guinea came last with zero rigs.

Nigeria has proven oil reserves of approximately 37 billion barrels of oil and 209 trillion standard cubic feet, Tscf of proven natural gas reserves.

Efforts to increase the 37 billion barrels of oil and 209 trillion standard cubic feet, Tscf of proven natural gas reserves have not been very successful for many years.

According to the report, Nigeria’s oil production has remained in the 1.1 million barrels per day range between 2022 and 2023, before rising to between 1.3 and 1.2 million barrels per day in the first and second quarter of 2024.

Production then went from 1.2mb/d in the second quarter to 1.3mb/d in the third quarter and remained flat until September 2024.

A production of 1.3mb/d is still a far cry from 1.7mb/d target of the Federal Government in the 2024 budget

Although OPEC has also fixed a 1.5mb/d quota for the country until December 2025, efforts to ramp up production have remained unsuccessful due to rampant high-level pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft in the oil-producing states.

Crude oil theft is a menace that has severely impacted the country’s revenues, despite ongoing government efforts to end it in the Niger Delta region.

The National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, stated a year ago that the country is losing 400,000 barrels of oil per day to crude oil thieves.