Nigeria’s oil production has dipped below 1 million barrels per day (mmbpd) for the first time since we became a heavy oil-producing country 50 years ago.
You’ll see from the chart that Nigeria's production wasn't this poor even during the pandemic when global lockdowns eroded demand for crude oil and refined products.
Key takeaways:
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Given Nigeria’s record low oil production, we must consider how Nigeria loses oil revenue.
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The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) records that Nigeria loses oil revenue from metering errors, theft and production shut-ins.
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Metering issues mean that there are accuracy issues with Nigeria’s recorded production. However, theft, vandalism, lack of investment and production shut-ins are still the significant causes of Nigeria’s low production levels.
Recent data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) puts our August production at 972,394 barrels per day, a new low for Africa’s former oil-producing giant. Since we wrote about
