The National Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has reported that Nigeria’s oil production declined to 1.517 million barrels per day (mbpd) in March 2023, representing 2% decline from 1.547 mbpd recorded in February 2023.
Nigeria’s crude oil output had risen by 3.5% in February 2023 to 1.547 mbpd from 1.494 mbpd recorded in January and by the end of March this year, the country produced about 70% of its 1.8mbpd OPEC quota in Q1 2023.
Despite the production decline in March, the NUPRC’s data indicated that Nigeria’s Q1 2023 performance represented a remarkable improvement over last year’s when production was at an all-time low.
The NUPRC’s data further reflected that in March, crude oil production from the Forcados terminal dropped to 5.7mbpd from 6.9mbpd recorded in February while the Excravos terminal recorded a relatively stable output with 4.3 mbpd output from 4.0mbpd in the previous month.
The commission further reported that Qua Iboe produced 4.2 mbpd in March, slightly higher than the 4.1 mbpd it recorded in February just as Bonny terminal’s output also surged to 3.2 mbpd from 2.1 mbpd in February.
This is even as the data also showed that in March, at the Brass terminal in Bayelsa, production fell to 666,826 bpd from 933,061 bpd output in the preceding month while Ọdụdụ terminal’s output increased from 2.9 mbpd in February to 3.3 mbpd. Also, Tulja-Okwuibome terminal’s production increased marginally from 1.0 mbpd in February to 1.1 million mbpd in March.
The report showed that in the month under review, Aje, Asaramatoru, Ajapa terminals as well as the Anambra basin, Oyo, Ukpokiti and Ima terminals were not operated in Q1 2023
