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Nigeria produces 1.87 million bpd of crude oil in January

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Despite the quota imposed on it crude oil production by the Organisation of  Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Nigeria’s crude oil production for the month of January, 2019 was put at 1.87 million barrels per day, a fall of 30,000 barrels per day from the previous month but output remains well above its quota of 1.69 million barrels per day which OPEC currently imposed on the country.

Going by this development, the country produced a total of 56.1 million barrels per day for the period under review.  If this figure is multiply by the daily average price of crude oil in January which was put at$56.58, it then means the total value of the crude oil produced in Nigeria i was $3.1 billion.

 The Nigerian government owes 60 per cent equity held on her behalf by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), this equity translates to $1.9 billion while the remaining $1.2billion goings to the joint venture partners.

 Andy Olotu, former managing director of Schlumberger said the country has the potential to produce higher volumes of crude if given the opportunity to do so.

 According to him, the deepwater production must have contributed in great measure to this volume, adding that since the NNPC is not a joint partners with those that operate under the Production Sharing Contract (PSC).He said because of this not all the $1.9 billion revenue may  go  to the Federal Government.

The country based its 2019 budget on 2.3 million barrels per day of crude oil production. This was benched mark against $60 per barrel of oil.

Africa’s largest oil producer is expected to see its crude production rise by almost 20% due to the startup of the giant 200,000 b/d offshore Egina field, with exports to kick off this month

Nigeria’s ministry officials insist some of the country’s crude should be categorized as condensate, which is not subject to production limits.

According to  S and P Global Platts, OPEC pumped the fewest barrels since March 2015 in January, with crude output plunging to 30.86 million b/d, a fall of 970,000 b/d from December as new supply quotas went into force,

The month-on-month fall was the biggest since December 2016, the survey found, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE leading the group in production discipline, while Libya kept its largest oil field offline due to security risks.

 OPEC+ members agreed to reduce oil output under the agreement signed late last year.

 This agreement has achieved 76% of their required cuts in January, with their production falling 619,000 b/d from October, the benchmark month from which the quotas were determined, except for Kuwait, which is using November.

At the last OPEC meeting in Vienna, the members agreed to slash output by 812,000 b/d, with Russia and nine other non-OPEC allies committing to a cut of 383,000 b/d for the first six months of 2019.

“Venezuela, Iran and Libya were exempted from the deal, and those three countries contributed to 25% of OPEC’s production decline for January.

Saudi Arabia has backed up the strong words of its energy minister Khalid al-Falih, with January production falling to 10.21 million b/d”.