Nigeria’s half-year crude, condensate output dips 27% in four years

Nigeria’s average crude oil, blended and unblended condensate production in the first half of 2023 has hit 1.45 million barrels per day (bpd), the lowest in four years, says a report by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

Data from the upstream regulatory body shows that the country’s oil production dipped by 27 percent from 2 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first half of 2020.

A further breakdown shows that Nigeria produced 2 million bpd in 2020, 1.7 million bpd in 2021, 1.47 million bpd in 2020, and 1.45 million bpd in 2023, in the first six months of these years.

Crude oil is a natural liquid extracted from the ground. Blended condensate is created by mixing natural gas liquids, while unblended condensate remains pure without any mixing or processing after separation from raw natural gas.

Emmanuel Kelvin, CEO and co-founder of Dairyhill, said other than the unification of exchange rates, the government needs to declare a state of emergency on oil theft as a tool to incentive large-scale institutional foreign investments for investing in FID for deep offshore explorations.

Read also: Explainer: How Nigeria can curb crude oil theft

“As seen daily production levels for exports drop is a 27.5 percent depreciation from 2020,” he said.

“A decade ago, Nigeria had an average annual investment of $22 billion per annum in the oil and gas sector, today that number has dropped to $6 billion per annum due to insecurity on pipelines, unstable FX markets that are normalising, and that led to IOCs divesting from onshore assets.”

Meanwhile, crude oil, blended and unblended, and condensate production increased to 1.473 million barrels per day in June 2023.

Data from the upstream regulatory body shows that the country’s oil production increased by 3.14 percent from 1.42 million bpd in May this year. On a year-on-year basis, it rose by 4.93 percent from 1.40 million bpd.

“Reduction in production can largely be traced to oil theft and vandalism. Also, there’s the question of whether investment in the oil and gas sector has been sufficient, especially considering the recent new regulatory climate,” said Joshua Olorunmaiye, team lead/executive associate, of energy and natural resources at Bloomfield LP.