Nigeria’s improved crude oil production uplifts OPEC’s December output

OPEC’s production for the month of December increased by 150,000 bpd over November figures, the Bloomberg survey showed, with Nigeria instrumental in this increase.

Nigeria, which for decades has struggled with oil theft, has said it has effectively cracked down on these rogue activities, allowing it to increase its actual oil production.

In October, Nigerian authorities discovered an illegal underwater 2.5-mile connection from Nigeria’s Forcados export terminal. It had been operating undetected for around nine years, state-run oil company NNPC said at the time. While Nigeria has known of the land-based pipeline taps for decades, an underwater one was the first of its kind.

Nigeria estimates it is losing about 600,000 bpd of crude oil due to theft. But for December, Bloomberg’s survey shows Nigeria’s crude oil production rallying to an eight-month high of 1.35 million bpd.

OPEC’s crude oil production continues to lag behind its designated quotas, and fell in November by 744,000 bpd, its most recent Monthly Oil Market Report showed. For November, Saudi Arabia’s production fell by 404,000 bpd, to 10.474 million bpd. The UAE, Kuwait, and Iraq also saw production decreases for November, bringing the group’s production to 28.826 million bpd—the lowest since June. It was 800,000 bpd below target.

The larger OPEC+ group moved to cut its production targets by 2 million bpd in November—about 1.27 million bpd set to come from OPEC members.

OPEC’s December production increase still fails to reach its targeted levels.