Oil price hits US$81, as Nigeria struggles to produce enough to sell

For the first time in three years, oil prices jumped to above $80 on Monday as the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OOEC) and its allies announced that it would maintain its steady output increase by 400,000 barrels per day in November.

Data from Bloomberg shows, that the price of the Brent rose by 2.5 percent or $2.00 to sell at $81.28 per barrel, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) moved up by 2.29 per cent or $1.74 to trade at $77.62 per barrel.

The rise in oil price is coming at a time Nigeria is struggling to meet its daily production.

Already, OPEC reports that between July, August, and September Nigeria recorded a shortfall of 130,000 barrels per day.

Read also: Oil price hits two-month high, but Nigeria not producing enough to tap into gains

“Nigeria’s oil output dropped by 9.28 percent in Q3 2021 as average daily production dropped from 1.40 million barrels in June to 1.27 million barrels in August,” according to OPEC’s monthly oil market report.

Ripples Nigeria had earlier reported that Nigeria self-reported crude output of 1.27 million bpd in August, down from 1.44 million bpd in July which was also lesser than the 1.54mbpd allowed.

NNPC oil production difficulty was quite highlighted in its August FAAC report in May, as it reported over 30 various disruptions from community clash, fire outbreaks among other operational breakdowns.

The breakdown resulted in a production loss of 4,187,500 barrels of oil, which could have generated at least $286.9 million which equates to about N118.2 billion at a N412 exchange rate.

Timipre Sylva, Nigeria’s minister of state for petroleum resources although promised that there will be a rebound in oil production into the country by November.

But it remains to be seen how this is possible as Nigeria’s highest production target of 1.7 million barrels per day is in 2022.

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