Nigeria’s Oil Exploration in September Slows Down Due to Low Investment – Report

Based on an analysis by Channels Television of a recently released report by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Nigeria’s crude oil exploration slowed year-on-year in September 2024 because of poor investment in the upstream petroleum sector.

OPEC reported that data from Direct Sources showed a little decline in crude oil production from 1,352 million barrels per day in August 2024 to 1, 324 million barrels per day in September 2024.

Nigeria’s number of oil exploration rigs deployed declined from 17 at the start of 2024 to 14 as of September 2024, according to OPEC’s most recent October 2024 Monthly Oil Market Report

A decline in the number of rigs indicates a low interest and investment since earlier reports indicated that International Oil Companies (IOCs) were pursuing various forms of divestment from the nation,

Equatorial Guinea ranked worst with zero rigs, while Algeria emerged as the country with the highest exploration intensity, according to OPEC. Nigeria possesses around 37 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and 209 trillion standard cubic feet (TSCF) of proven natural gas reserves. For a long time, there has been little progress in attempts to enhance the proven natural gas reserves of 209 trillion standard cubic feet (TSCf) and 37 billion barrels of oil.

The paper claims that during 2022 and 2023, Nigeria’s oil production stayed at 1.1 million barrels per day, but in the first and second quarter of 2024, it increased to between 1.3 and 1.2 million barrels per day. Then, from 1.2 mb/d in the second quarter to 1.3 mb/d in the third, production increased and then leveled off until September 2024. Production of 1.3 MB/d is still far short of the Federal Government’s 2024 budget objective of 1.7 MB/d.

Even though OPEC has set a 1.5 million barrels per day quota for the nation until December 2025, high-level pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft in the oil-producing nations have made efforts to increase production impossible. Despite continuous government efforts to curb it in the Niger Delta region, crude oil theft remains a threat that has negatively affected the nation’s earnings.

Crude oil thieves are stealing 400,000 barrels of oil out of the country every day, according to National Security Advisor Nuhu Ribadu’s statement a year ago.

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