Exploration in Nigeria’s oil industry has suffered a setback following a report that its crude oil production dropped by 37 per cent in less than three years, according to industry statistics.
Data from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ September 2022 Monthly Oil Market Report revealed that the country’s oil rig count dropped to 10 in August 2022, from 16 recorded in 2019.
An analysis of the report indicate that as of 2019, Nigeria’s rig count was 16. It dropped to 11 in 2020, and further decreased to seven as of fourth quarter 2021.
Globally, the upstream sector of the petroleum industry uses the rig count as a major index for measuring exploration and other activities.
An oil rig is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations in the ocean bottom.
By first quarter 2022, it increased to eight, and then 10 by second quarter 2022, and moved up to 11 in July 22, before dropping to 10 in August.
The OPEC report further showed that the rig counts of other member nations of the organisation such as Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE were 33, 117, 54, 27, 68 and 50 respectively.
OPEC had said demand for its crude in 2023 remained unchanged from the previous MOMR to stand at 29.8 million barrels per day, which is around 0.9 mb/d higher than what was recorded in 2022.
Nigeria’s crude oil output fell to 900,000 barrels per day last month, according to OPEC. Lawyer advising NNPC on oil and gas projects and transactions and partner at Bloomfield Law Practice, Ayodele Oni, advised the Federal Government to checkmate oil thieves and economic saboteurs.