Nigeria’s oil production plunges, loses N49bn

For the fourth time this year, Nigeria again failed to meet the oil production quota allocated to member countries by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in April.

In a report released by OPEC on Monday, the oil cartel said Nigeria produced 1.39 million barrels per day as against the expected 1.735 mb/d.

What this means is that Nigeria’s oil production plunged by 40,000 barrels per day, translating to 1.2 mb/d during the period.

Nigeria missed its oil production target for January after pumping 1.399 mb/d against the 1.683 mb/d approved by OPEC.

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The country produced 1.258mb/d and 1.238 mb/d in February and March respectively.

Data by Reuters shows that Brent crude oil prices, the benchmark for Nigeria’s oil, closed on average in April at $101 per barrel.

The 1.2 mb/d production shortfall comes to a total of $121.2 million (N49.9bn) oil revenue loss.

The OPEC, however, revealed that Nigeria was not only the country that hobbled on its expected oil production plan for April.

Libya and a handful of African countries also failed to meet the quota allocated to them by the Vienna-based oil cartel.

According to OPEC, 10 members are pumping far less than the agreed quota.