Nigeria’s oil production output rebounds amidst reduced insecurity threats,oil theft

By Ibiyemi Mathew

For the first time in eight months, Nigeria’s oil production rose to 1.35 million bpd.

Sources in a survey conducted by Reuters said many Nigerian crude streams produced more in December as a result of improved security.

Crude theft and insecurity have been grappling issues that continue to hinder the production output of Nigeria, the NNPC has stated in recent times.

However, this development suggests that the Nigerian government crackdown on oil thieves may be yielding some positive results.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries boosted supplies by 150,000 barrels a day, with Nigeria effectively providing the entire gain, according to a Bloomberg survey.

Total group output was 29.14 million barrels a day while the Nigerian output rose by 170,000 bpd being the biggest gain in group.

OPEC pumped 29.0 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, the survey found, up 120,000 bpd from November.

OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, had been boosting output for most of 2022 as demand recovered. For November, with oil prices weakening, the group made its largest cut since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Their decision from November called for a 2 million bpd cut in the OPEC+ output target, of which about 1.27 million bpd was meant to come from the 10 participating OPEC countries. The same target applied in December.

With the rebound in Nigerian output in December, compliance with the agreement weakened slightly to 161 per cent of pledged cuts, according to the survey, from 163 per cent in November.