Nigeria’s oil production increased by almost 15% in November, following the restoration of operations at Shell Plc’s Forcados terminal.
The country produced a daily average of 1.41 million barrels of combined crude and condensate — a light hydrocarbon — last month, up from 1.23 million barrels in October, according to data published by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.
Also, crude output at 1.19 million barrels a day is still almost a third below the quota allowed by the OPEC+ alliance. The improvement was said to have been driven by the October restart of Shell’s terminal following a 10-week interruption for repair work.
Also Read: Shell Considers Windfall Tax, Reviews £25bn British Projects
Production of grades exported from the facility nearly tripled last month to about 230,000 barrels per day, the NUPRC’s data said.
Oil theft had caused Nigeria’s production to decline steadily since the last decade. The situation peaked last August when Nigeria reportedly lost its position as Africa’s largest crude producer to Angola and then Libya, according to a Bloomberg survey of OPEC output.
In addition to oil theft, the Nigerian authorities have blamed massive levels of theft on pipelines for shutting down wells and killing off investment.
Also Read: Court Rejects Nigeria’s $1.1bn Compensation Request Against Eni, Shell
Two other major terminals — Eni SpA’s Brass and Shell’s Bonny — continue to operate at a fraction of their capacities “simply because we are unable to deliver crude” into the plants because of insecurity, Bala Wunti, chief upstream investment officer at the Nigerian National Petroleum Co., told national television recently.
By Bosco Anayo
Be the first to know when we publish an update
