In July 2023, Nigeria’s crude oil output fell to 1,294,162 barrels per day.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s (NUPRC) figures indicate this.
According to the data, Nigeria produced 1,081,396 barrels of crude oil each day during the highlighted month, as well as 38,258 barrels per day of blended condensate and 174,509 barrels per day of unblended condensates. In total, these amounted to 1,294,162 barrels per day for the entire month.
This is the second occasion since the beginning of 2023 that Nigeria’s oil production rate has fallen below 1.4 m/bpd; the first occurred in April 2023, when the nation produced 1,245,028 barrels.
The nation’s crude production numbers at other times varied between 1.4 and 1.5 m/bpd.
Remember that the nation recorded 1,480,078 barrels per day, including condensates, in June 2023.
The Forcados terminal’s outage in the first few days of July, when sheen was discovered at the plant and activities were suspended as a result, was largely to blame for the drop in crude oil production that month.
The Forcados port, a key node in Nigeria’s oil infrastructure, experienced a production shortage that, according to NUPRC statistics, resulted in a noticeable drop in crude output.
In July 2023, the Forcados terminal produced a total of 3,286,735 barrels.
This statistic stands in contrast to the higher production of 7,898,226 barrels that was recorded in the month of June 2023 before.
It is crucial to emphasize that other than the Forcados terminal, several other significant terminals also decreased production levels.
According to the NUPRC data, the Bonny terminal produced 2,606,500 barrels in July 2023.
This is less than the 3,214,900 barrels of production that were reported in June 2023.
A similar reduction from the 1,136,446 barrels produced in June 2023 was evident at the Brass terminal, which reported a production of 987,114 barrels.
A decline from the 3,109,894 barrels reported in June 2023 was seen in production at the Odudu (Amenam blend) terminal, which was recorded at 2,934,411 barrels in July 2023.
In contrast, the Qua Iboe port produced more in July than it did in June 2023—a total of 4,123,574 barrels as opposed to 3,788,731 barrels.
Additionally, the Escravos oil port increased crude production in July, producing 4,866,131 barrels overall. It exceeds the 4,475,298 barrels that were tallied in June 2023.
What you should know
The theft of crude oil continues to pose significant concerns to Nigeria. 240 cases of crude oil theft were reported in Nigeria between July 15 and July 21, 2023, according to data from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
The period from July 22 through July 28 saw 139 instances of crude oil theft.
