Angola has been ranked Africa’s largest crude oil producer, surpassing Nigeria for the first time in more than five years.
According to Bloomberg’s survey of monthly OPEC output, Angola’s average daily output in August of 1.17 million barrels was more than Nigeria’s at 1.13 million barrels. The last time that happened was in April 2017 when both nations were pumping about 500,000 barrels a day more, the same data show.
Nigeria’s production has declined steadily since 2020 and has reached multi-decade lows this year. The government has blamed massive levels of theft on the pipelines that crisscross the oil-rich Niger Delta in southern Nigeria.
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Oil export capacity
Libya is also projected to overtake Nigeria I the coming years if the West African country continues on its current trajectory. The survey recorded the country produced 1.08 million barrels of crude a day in August.
Nigeria’s daily crude oil production fell below 1 million barrels per day (BPD) for the month of August to 972,394 BPD, which was below Angola’s average daily output of 1.17 million barrels. This was disclosed by the Federal Government through the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission monthly oil report. That figure rose to 1.18 million barrels when condensate – a light hydrocarbon that is exempt from OPEC quotas – is included. However, according to Bloomberg’s survey of monthly OPEC output, Nigeria’s output for August was 1.13 million barrels.
Meanwhile, Shell also warned that the work on the 180,000-barrel-a-day Trans Niger Pipeline would be completed in late September, which would put a dent in Nigeria’s crude oil export capacity.
