For the month of April 2023, Angola has surpassed Nigeria to take the top spot among African producers of crude oil. This is based on information from direct communication contained in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ April 2023 monthly oil market report.
Angola produced 1.06 million barrels per day of crude oil in April 2023, according to the data.
In the meantime, Algeria and Nigeria both registered daily production of 999,000 barrels during the highlighted period in April 2023. Nigeria’s production rate in 2023 is at its lowest level ever.
According to data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Nigeria produced 998,602 barrels of crude oil per day in April 2023, according to Nairametrics.
According to the OPEC report, the average daily output of crude oil from the OPEC-13 countries in April 2023 was 28.60 million barrels, down 191 thousand barrels from the previous month. While production in Iraq and Nigeria fell, it climbed mostly in Saudi Arabia, Angola, and Iran.
According to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, rising global tensions will continue to affect oil demand in the world in 2023. This was noted by the organization in its May 11-released monthly oil market report. According to the research from OPEC, the overall daily demand for oil is expected to reach 101.9 million barrels in 2023. According to a section of the paper, “However, this forecast is subject to many uncertainties, including global economic developments and ongoing geopolitical tensions.”
KPMG Nigeria, a tax consultancy firm, recently suggested that the Nigerian government seek for measures to boost its oil earnings. However, the fact that the nation would lose its position as the top African oil producer to Angola in April 2023 does not reassert confidence that the oil sector will operate well, at the very least, in the second quarter of 2023.
Several oil and gas firms, as well as nations that produce petroleum, benefited from higher oil prices brought on by the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited estimates that the country lost up to 700,000 barrels per day of crude oil in 2022, which prevented Nigeria from benefiting from the price increase.
According to the OPEC MOMR, Nigeria’s economy would have trouble picking up steam in the first quarter of 2023 because of weak business and consumer activity, high input-cost inflation, and lower employment levels compared to 2022.
