Latest reports by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have indicated that Nigeria’s crude oil exports in the first quarter this year were 22.658 million barrels lower than the approved quota for the country.
This implies that despite the Nigerian government’s desire to boost revenue, the country lost about of N1.22 trillion based on its budgetary provisions for the quarter.
According to the cartel’s data, Nigeria got approval to supply 1.683 million barrels per day (mb/d) and year was 1.701mb/d and 1.718mb/d for Nigeria in February and March 2022.
However, the latest data in the OPEC’s latest Monthly Oil Market Report for April 2022, indicated that Nigeria’s crude oil production from secondary sources in January 2022 was 1.413mb/d. The volume decreased to 1.378mb/d in February and dipped further to 1.354mb/d in March this year.
An analysis of the figures showed that the country’s crude oil production was lower that the OPEC’s approved quota by 270,000 barrels daily in January, totaling 8.370 million barrels shortfall in the month compared to 9.044 million barrels in February and 11.284 million barrels in March.
A global statistical firm, Statistica, in its oil sector data published it January reported that in January 2022 the average price of Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, stood at $86.51/barrel.
Using the $86.51 per barrel template to estimate Nigeria’s crude oil revenue losses showed that for the 8.370 million barrels of crude shortfall in January, Nigeria lost $724.1 million, (about N301.22 billion at the official exchange rate of N416/$).
In February, the average price of Brent crude climbed to $97.13/barrel and Nigeria also based on 9.044 million barrels shortfall for the month also suffered $878.44 million (about N365.43 billion)
Similarly, in March when the average price of Brent crude at N117.25/barrel, the country recorded $1.323 billion (about N550.388 billion) revenue shortfall for 11.284 million barrels gap in its production for the month.
