Nigeria lost N249bn crude oil revenue in July – Report

Nigeria lost about N249bn crude oil revenue in July following a plunge in the country’s oil output by over four million barrels in the same month, latest oil production data slhas shown.

Data obtained from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission indicated that while the country’s total oil production in June was 37.5 million barrels, it dropped to 33.5 million barrels in July.

This shows that the country lost about four million barrels of oil between June and July. Pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft have been blamed severally as the reason for the plunge in Nigeria’s oil output.

The average cost of Brent, the global benchmark for crude oil, in July 2023 was $80.1/barrel, according to data from the World Bank.

Meanwhile, daily crude oil output figures from the NUPRC showed that in June, the country pumped 1.25 million barrels per day, but this dropped to 1.08mbpd in July.

The country had produced 1.18mbpd in May, which was higher than the 0.99mbpd production figure recorded in the preceding month of April.

Nigeria’s crude oil output dropped by 38,102 barrels per day in March, translating to a cumulative loss of about 1,181,162 barrels, and signaled the first plunge in oil production since seven months.

But the drop grew worse in April, as it plunged by 269,600 per day when compared to what was recorded in the preceding month.

Nigeria’s oil production had been on the rise since September 2022.

Punch/Hauwa Abu