Nigeria regains position as Africa’s top oil producer

Nigeria has steadily overtaken Angola as the top crude oil and gas producer in Africa, with an increased out put of 91,500 barrels per day (bpd) in February 2018.

Angola, which is Nigeria’s rival in terms of crude oil production in sub-Saharan Africa, surpassed Nigeria with over 200,000 bpd since 2016 due to the renewed militancy in the Niger Delta, which led to drastic drop in the country’s output.

For instance, while Nigeria’s crude oil output in second quarter of 2017 stood at 1.485 million barrels per day, Angola’s production was 1.635 million barrels per day.

Angola upstaged Nigeria with 1.668 million barrels per day in the third quarter of 2017, while Nigeria’s output was 1.572 million barrels per day.

But Nigeria began to surpass Angola in crude oil production from December 2017 with an output of 1.569 million bpd.

For example, while Angola produced 1.548 million bpd in December 2017; 1.562 mbpd in January; and 1.498 mbpd in February, Nigeria’s oil output was far higher with 1.569mbpd in December, 1.641mbpd in January and 1.732mbpd in February.

According to secondary sources, total OPEC-14 crude oil production averaged 32.19 mbpd in February, a decrease of 77 thousand barrels per day over the previous month.

While production mainly decreased in Venezuela, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iraq, this was partially offset by higher production in Nigeria and Angola.