Oil production: Decline in Nigeria, Libya, others fuelling global changes

Decline in Nigeria’s oil production and some other Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) members including Libya, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, accounting for about 600,000 barrels daily production is one of the major causes of the changes in global hydrocarbon production matrix in 2013, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy June 2014.

These production declines in 2013 were also responsible for average oil prices exceeding $100/barrel for the third consecutive year, despite supply growth in the United States.

Speaking at the launch of the Statistical Review, at the opening of the 21st World Petroleum Congress (WPC), at the Crocus Expo in Moscow, Russia, BP’s group chief executive, Bob Dudley, noted that whereas production fell in some OPEC members it, however, increased in non-OPEC countries.

Specifically, in its review of the global energy situation in 2013, the Annual Statistical Review captured the worst production decline from Libya, down by 520,000 barrels per day (bpd); Iran, 190,000bpd; Saudi Arabia, Russia110,000bpd; and Nigeria, 100,000bpd.

Dudley, who said in his review that energy markets reflect broader themes, also noted that “energy production continued to be impacted by geopolitical.”

For instance, in the case of Libya, one of Africa’s top producers, he said, “Oil production in Libya suffered the world’s largest decline in the face of renewed civil unrest.”

But for production growth in the US, exceeding 1.1 million, the largest in the world during the review period, the oil market would have suffered higher oil prices.

The US alone accounted for about 96 percent of the minimal 0.6 percent or 560,000bpd rise in oil production, supported by growth in Canada +150,000bpd; and Russia +150,000bpd helped offset the declines in some OPEC countries as well as some non-OPEC countries like Syria, 120,000bpd; United Kingdom and Norway, 80,000bpd, respectively; and Australia, 70,000bpd.

Despite the production mixed bags observed in 2013, the statistical review noted that overall, “consumption and production increased for all fuels, reaching record levels for every fuel type except nuclear power.”