Report: FG Rakes Oil Revenue Worth N1.4tn in February

The Federal Government earned the sum of N1.4tn from oil export in February.
Earnings from oil export rose marginally last month, as oil output increased by 100,000 barrels per day, amounting to a rise of 2.8 million barrels in the month, according to data gathered from Reuters’ secondary source survey for February.

A breakdown of the statistics showed that a rise in crude oil production by 100,000 per day translates to a 2.8 million output increase in February.

The total production for February was put at 1.3 million barrels per day, amounting to an output of about 36,400 million for the month.

Nigeria’s crude grade, Bonny Light, was sold for $84 per barrel in February, translating to total earnings of about N1.408tn.

According to a direct source, checks on production data provided by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Monthly Oil Market Report for January showed that crude oil output was 1.2 million barrels per day in January. This amounted to a production output of about 37 million barrels in the month.
The commodity was sold at $82 per barrel in January, amounting to earnings of about N1.405tn.
The development came on the heels of a recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics, saying that crude oil production contracted by 13 per cent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of last year.

According to NBS, Nigeria recorded an average daily oil output of 1.3 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter of 2022, lower than the daily average of 1.50 mbpd recorded in the same quarter of 2021.

The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, recently blamed low crude oil production on theft resulting from pipeline vandalism.

A professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Akpan Ekpo said that despite crude oil retaining 80 per cent of the total trade, the country should rely less on crude oil revenue.

On his part, a lawyer advising NNPC Ltd on oil and gas projects and transactions and partner at Bloomfield Law Practice, Ayodele Oni, urged the Federal Government to provide solutions to the oil theft challenges bedeviling the country in order to record more growth.