Nigeria’s crude oil earnings rose by N308.6bn within two months following the recent increase in the country’s oil output due to concerted efforts by Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and security agencies to halt oil theft.

Data accessed from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and other international agencies, on Sunday, showed that the country’s oil earnings moved up between September and November this year.

Figures from the NUPRC showed that while Nigeria pumped 937,766 barrels of crude oil per day in September, its output moved up to 1,014,485 barrels per day in October.

This represents an increase of 76,719 barrels per day, which translates to a total of 2,378,289 barrels for October.

The increase in oil production continued in November, as Nigeria produced 1,185,604 barrels per day in that month, indicating a daily increase of 171,119 barrels in November.

This implies that the country’s crude oil output appreciated by 5,133,570 barrels during the review month.

Data from Statistica, an international statistical firm, showed that in October 2022, the average price of Brent, the global benchmark for crude oil, was $93.4/barrel, while in November it was $91.42/barrel.

Therefore in October, the country’s oil earnings moved up by $222.13m or N99.14bn, at the official exchange rate of N446.32/$.

For November, Nigeria’s crude oil earnings rose by $469.31m or N209.46bn, at the Central Bank of Nigeria N446.32/$ official exchange rate.

This implies that for the two months, the 7,511,859 barrels increase in Nigeria’s crude oil production raised the country’s earnings by N308.6bn.

Nigeria’s oil production had been crashing since last year following massive oil theft in the Niger Delta region, a development that denied the country billions of dollars in terms of oil revenue.

However, in the past few months, the Federal Government intensified efforts to check the menace of oil theft. NNPC, in partnership with security agencies and private contractors, deployed measures to tackle the challenge.

These measures seem to be paying off, as oil production increased consecutively in October and November 2022.

Chief Upstream Investment Officer, NNPC Upstream Management Services, Bala Wunti, recently spoke on measures so far implemented in curbing the issue of crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism.

He stated that steps so far taken had yielded positive results as crude oil production had now increased to 1.59 million barrels per day from the 1.1 million barrels per day which it was in August this year.

“From our records, before we recovered, we were losing 700,000bpd translating to 21 million barrels per month, and if you consider an average price of this year at $90/barrel, that will translate somewhere around $1.8bn or $1.9bn loses that we suffered,” he reportedly stated.

Punch