An analysis of financial reports from some major state-owned oil and gas companies on the African continent revealed earnings of $27.95 billion this year buoyed by rising crude prices.
Nigeria’s state oil firm is not included as it is yet to publish its earnings.
Oil firms Sonatrach (Algeria), the National Oil Corporation (Libya), and Sonangol (Angola) earned $21 billion, $6.95 billion, and $3.4 million respectively.
Revenue for Angola and Libya was for the first six months of the year while Algeria’s accounted for January to May.
“Our oil and gas earnings in the first five months of 2023 totaled $21 billion, a 2 percent increase over the same period the previous year,” Toufik Hakkar, CEO of Sonatrach, said last month.
According to Hakkar, before Algeria can increase its gas exports, it needs more visibility from European firms.
Meanwhile, Angola and Libya recorded a decline in their revenue compared to the first half of 2022.
Between January and June 2023, the Angolan government said it collected 2.8 billion kwanzas ($3.4 million) in oil revenue, a 2 billion kwanzas ($2.4 million) decrease from the same period in 2022.
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Angola exported 209.5 million barrels of crude oil in 2022 at an average price of $99.40 per barrel, earning 4.2 billion kwanzas ($5.1 million).
Angola said the drop in oil revenue was due to a drop in the average price of a barrel and lower export volumes.
According to taxation data published by Angola’s finance ministry, the country exported 191.83 million barrels of crude oil at an average price of $78.35 per barrel in the first half of 2023.
Angola projects that the average cost of a barrel of crude oil will be $75 per barrel in its national budget for the current fiscal year.
Libya’s central bank said crude oil revenues in the first half of the year fell to $6.95 billion (33.4 billion Libyan dinars), down from 37.3 billion dinars in the first half of 2022.
Libyan crude oil production has increased in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year. According to OPEC’s secondary sources, Libya’s crude oil production averaged 1.157 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) in the first quarter of 2023, rising only slightly to 1.169 million bpd by May of this year.
“The flow of oil and gas would be halted unless the western-based Government of National Unity appointed an eastern-government representative to oversee the National Oil Corporation (NOC),” Libya’s Government of National Stability said in July.
Libya is having difficulty attracting foreign investment in its oil sector.
