Angola may takeover Africa’s number 1 position, new OPEC data shows

Anxiety is building up following the latest data released by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) showing drop in Nigeria’s oil exports contrary to earlier reports by the Ministry.

OPEC, in its Monthly Oil Market Report for March 2017, put crude oil production from Nigeria at 1.526 million barrels per day in February, down from 1.533 million bpd in the previous month, based on direct communication.

Production from its southern African counterpart, Angola, stood at 1.649 million bpd in February, up from the 1.615 million bpd recorded in January.

OPEC, which uses secondary sources to monitor its oil output, also publishes a table of figures submitted by its member countries, said the group’s total production in February averaged 31.96 million bpd, showing a decrease of 14,000 bpd over the previous month.

It said, according to secondary sources, crude oil output increased the most in Nigeria in February, while production in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates and Angola showed the largest declines.

Secondary sources put Nigeria’s output at 1.608 million bpd, while Angola was said to have produced 1.641 million bpd.

The number of active oil rigs in Nigeria, which had continued to decline in recent months, however, rose to 26 in February, latest data from Baker Hughes Incorporated and OPEC showed.

Again, the nation’s rig count stood at a low of 23 in December last year, down from 38 in January 2015.