Nigeria earned N5trn from oil sales in first quarter of 2023

Nigeria recorded N5.14 trillion from crude oil sales in the first three months of 2023, from N4.9 trillion realised over the last quarter according to newly released government data.

This is despite a six percent decline in oil prices from $88.5 per barrel in the fourth quarter of 2022.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics data, Nigeria earned N5.1 trillion, N4.9 trillion, and N4.6 trillion in Q1 2023, Q4 2022, and Q3 2022, respectively.

Crude oil exports accounted for 79.37 percent of Nigeria’s foreign trade.

Joshua Olorunmaiye, energy lawyer at Bloomfield LP said the Russia-Ukraine war has contributed to a growing demand for oil and gas, with EU countries and countries like the United States and India among others are searching for alternatives to Russian supply.”

He also recent efforts to curb oil theft may have helped to boost production.

“Certain technologies have been deployed which help to monitor and report. There has also been more collaboration between security forces, community groups and the government agencies in the sector, ensuring that overall, production is ramped up and more crude arrives at its destination and is sold for the benefit of the economy,” Olorunmaiye said.

Read also: Nigeria’s LNG sales fell 18% to N622bn in first quarter of 2023

Analysis shows Nigeria’s output has been steady in the past five months until it dropped to 1.26m bpd in March 2023.

Nigeria’s output further fell below 1m bpd in April according to OPEC data.

Meanwhile, Nigeria alongside other OPEC and Non-OPEC members at the latest Joint Ministerial Management Committee (JMMC) meeting agreed to a cut in production volumes in order to ensure global oil market stability.

Under the new plan, Nigeria, Congo and Angola agreed that the highest production volumes of the last six months (November 2022 – April 2023) be used as the basis for the determination of their 2024 production quota, subject to a review in November at the 2nd annual meeting of the JMMC.

“However, the current OPEC quota would be maintained till the end of 2023; This implies that Nigeria can ramp up its production up to its current quota of 1.743m bpd and subsequently be capped at 10 percent less as its quota for 2024 subject to verification by independent secondary sources,” said Gabriel Aduda, permanent secretary Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

“This will be complemented by a condensate of about 400KBD ultimately upping Nigeria’s crude oil and condensate production to about two million barrels per day in 2024.”