Oil Theft Takes Toll On Economy As Nigeria Drops To 7th Producing Nation

More Worries for Nigeria’s tottling oil dependent economy as it has continued to diminish in her deliverables among the commity of oil producing countries.

Government has attributed massive borrowings threatening the survival of the nation to pipeline vandalization and oil theft, development that has given non state actors prominence in the security management and protection of critical assets in the country.

But the developments are not going unnoticed among international investors and other oil-producing nations.

Consequently, the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has ranked Nigeria 7th in crude oil production for the month of November.The ranking was arrived at after the country’s production output and monthly review for  October.

Nigeria’s output was put at a mere 1.014 million barrels per day in October thereby making it drop to 7th behind other producing countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq, Angola and Algeria.

According to OPEC, these was what the output looked like in October;Nigeria 1. 014mb/d in October, Angola produced 1. 051mb/d;  Algeria, 1.060mb/d; Kuwait 2.811mb/d; UAE, 3.188mb/d;  Iraq, 4.651mb/d; and Saudi Arabia, 10. 957mb/d.

While Venezuela’s production was 711b/d, Equatorial Guinea’s was 57b/d. The likes of Gabon, Libya and Iran did not produce a barrel in the month.

Nigeria used to rank fifth, with countries such as Angola and Algeria behind it in terms of crude oil production.

West Africa’s largest economy has been through a rough path as its crude oil production is bedevilled by theft and pipeline vandalism.

It was gathered that the country lost N415bn to the shutdown of nine crude oil terminals within the space of two months.

The affected terminals, Forcados, Qua Ibo, Bonny, Bonga, Voho, Erha, Brass, Ukpokiti and Aje were shut down between May and June 2022.

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Crude oil losses recorded as a result of the shut-in include 258,000 from Forcados  between June 24 and 30; 1,470mb from Qua Iboe from June 15-30;  3, 545mb from Bonny from June 1-30; and 558,000b from Bonga between June 15 and 30.

Expert have said that the country needs to identify the problems and apply drastic measures to address them on time.