Nigeria Lost 120 Million Barrels Of Crude Oil To Oil Thieves In 9 Months

Oil & Gas

Nigeria Lost 120 Million Barrels Of Crude Oil To Oil Thieves In 9 Months

Kayode Shopekan

November 3, 2022

Nigeria Lost 120 Million Barrels Of Crude Oil To Oil Thieves In 9 Months

Between January to September of this year, Nigeria lost well over 120 million barrels of oil to oil thieves ravaging the sector in the country, this development has adversely affected the nation’s revenue generation plan.

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The rate of crude oil loss amounts to $12.6 billion, this is according to information gotten from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

Nigeria is currently battling a debt crisis and still hopes to borrow in order to sustain its programs. Recall that the proposed budget for 2023 stands at N20.5 trillion ($47.3 billion), if not for the losses recorded in the oil sector, $12.6 billion could have funded a portion of the budget.

Infrastructure issues, pipeline leaks and oil theft have squeezed Nigerian output this year, leaving the country consistently below its OPEC+ crude targets. Nigeria’s own submission to the OPEC Secretariat put September crude output at just 938,000 b/d, just over half its quota for the month, while total liquids production was only 1.14mn b/d, according to the NUPRC.

Notwithstanding the challenges, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited is hopeful the country’s oil production will rebound to 1.8mn b/d by the end of the year and to increase further in 2023.

If Nigeria is successful in increasing its oil production, it may again broach the subject of adjusting the baseline production figure that determines its quotas within the OPEC+ group.

The total production from January to September of 2021, which included crude oil and condensate, stood at 452,051,631 barrels.

The total production from January to September of 2022, made up of crude oil, blended and unblended condensate stood at 331,825,054 barrels.

This development brought the level of loss in a space of nine months to 120,226,577 barrels.

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