Data from Joint organization Data Initiative (JODI), an international group committed to improving the availability and reliability of data on petroleum and natural gas has revealed Africa biggest oil producing country oil export rose to 1.873million Barrel per day (bpd) in December 2018.
According to JODI database maintained by the Riyadh-based International Energy Forum, comprises self-reported oil figures from 114 countries; Nigeria‘s oil export rose by 7.6 percent from 1.725million bpd in November to 1.873million bpd while crude oil output rose by 3.9 percent from 1.803 bpd in November.
JODI also revealed that Nigeria closing stock grew by 0.175million barrels to 18.023 million barrels in December.
On Monday, Nigeria’s ministry of petroleum resources spokesman told Bloomberg by phone that Nigeria’s total crude condensate output slipped to 1.66 million bpd in January 2019 compare to 1.78 million bpd recorded in December 2018.
The spokesman for ministry told Bloomberg that Nigeria crude condensate output slipped to 2 million bpd in January 2019 compared to 2.08 million bpd recorded in December 2018.
Also, JODI database revealed Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter, shipped 7.687 million bpd of crude in December 2018, a 548,000 bpd drop from November, when shipments were the highest since November 2016, just before Organization Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) instituted a production cut deal that began January 2017.
Saudi Arabia’s Refinery runs in December 2018 dropped to 2.684 million bpd, down 152,000 bpd from November, while direct crude burn for power generation increased to 364,000 bpd, up 36,000 bpd, JODI data showed.
Saudi Arabia reported to OPEC earlier this month that its January crude production dropped to 10.243 million bpd, as the kingdom slashed output ahead of a new production cut agreement that went into force January 1 2019.
Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih told the Financial Times last week his country’s output would fall to 9.8 million bpd in March, below its quota under the latest deal of 10.311 million bpd. Exports will be cut to near 6.9 million bpd, he added.
The country since June had significantly raised its production and exports under pressure from the US to keep the market well supplied ahead of the November 5 re-imposition of sanctions targeting Iran’s oil sales.
But with the US issuing waivers to eight countries to continue buying Iranian oil through May 5 and forecasts of weakening market fundamentals ahead, OPEC and allies in December agreed to slash production by a combined 1.2 million bpd for the first six months of 2019 to shore up the oil market.
A key OPEC/non-OPEC monitoring committee chaired by Saudi Arabia and Russia will meet March 18 in Baku, Azerbaijan, while the next full OPEC meeting will be April 17 in Vienna, with Russia and the nine other non-OPEC partners joining talks a day later.
