NIGERIA RECORDS HIGHEST QUARTERLY OIL OUTPUT IN THREE-YEARS DESPITE PRODUCTION DECLINE IN Q1, 2024

A review of the oil production assets which were the most problematic during the period showed that Bonny terminal recorded a steady decline in 2024, falling from 6.36 million barrels in January to 4.60 million barrels and 4.26 million barrels in February and March respectively.

Brass also recorded a decline from 735,680 barrels in January to 617,189 barrels in February and then 686, 188 barrels in March.

Production at Forcados also fell from 7.79 million barrels in

January to 6.79 million barrels in February and further to 6.67 million barrels in March 2024.

Recently, Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves have taken a significant hit, dropping by approximately $1.02 billion within the last few days as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stepped up efforts aimed at defending the naira.

On March 18, 2024, the FX reserves stood at $34.45 billion, but by April 3, it had dropped to $33.50 billion, based on data from the apex bank.

Ii is believed that if Nigeria was producing enough crude oil, the significant drawdown of the reserves, would have been avoided.

Before now, despite recent gains in terms of volume of oil produced by Nigeria, some Nigerians believe that there is need to set new targets for the local security groups in charge of pipeline surveillance in the Niger.

This is because production has not markedly risen as expected since the contacts were awarded to them, in spite of the huge contract payments.

Just last week, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) in its weekly rundown of activities between March 30 and April 5, 2024, said a total of 155 oil theft-related and vandalism incidents were recorded across several locations in the Niger Delta region from several sources.

However, according to the NNPC, five persons were arrested by one of the local security teams, with 53 illegal connections uncovered between March 30 and April 5, 2024 in Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta States.