Oil Production In June Drops To 1.89b/d – FG

Nigeria’s crude oil and condensate production has remained far lower than projected in the 2018 budget for the last two months, data released by the country’s petroleum ministry has shown.

The ministry in its latest Periscope Newsletter distributed yesterday to newsmen showed that crude oil production including condensate stood at 1.82 million barrels per day (b/d) in May and 1.89 million b/d in June 2018.

These were lower than the average 2 million b/d crude oil production the country recorded in the first four months of 2018 and are still far lower than the 2.3 million b/d production benchmark set in the 2018 budget.

The newsletter, which the ministry uses to deliver updates on key events and activities in the Nigerian oil and gas sector, showed that average production between January and April was 2 million b/d except in February when the country hit 2.1 million b/d.

President Muhammadu Buhari recently signed the N9.1 trillion 2018 budget into law which is premised on 2.3 million barrels per day oil production target and $51 per barrel price.

Daily Trust reports that although oil prices have been relatively stable and trading above $70 per barrel for the first time since November 2014, the country’s crude oil production and exports have been hurt.

The implication of the drop in oil production is that despite the rally in oil price, the government could miss production and revenue targets set in the 2018 budget.

In May, shipments of the country’s most sought-after crude, Bonny Light, were suspended after an outage on the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL), one of the two main pipelines that deliver Bonny Light crude to the export terminal.

Source: DAILYTRUST