Nigeria produced 1.25 million barrels of crude oil per day on average in May 2024, down from 1.28 million barrels in April.
Compared to the 1.28 million bpd reported in the previous month of April, this indicates a fall of thirty thousand bpd and is the second lowest in 2024.
This is in line with the OPEC Monthly Oil Market (MOMR) for May, which estimates the overall supply of crude oil supplied by OPEC+ countries at 40.9 million barrels per day based on secondary sources.
Only the crude oil output in March, which was 1.23 million bpd, was exceeded by the average crude oil production of 1.25 million bpd for the month under review, making it the second-lowest crude oil production in 2024.
Nigeria continued to be Africa’s top producer of crude oil despite the continent’s low production, with Angola and Libya following.
However, secondary sources claim that during the month under examination, Nigeria’s crude oil production rose by 74,000 barrels, from 1.34 million bpd to 1.41 million bpd.
This is consistent with a previous Reuters survey that found Nigeria produced about 50,000 barrels more of crude oil in May than it did in April.  Â
Demand for oil worldwide and its average price in May
As to the data, the global demand for crude oil increased by 2.2 million in May, which was the same as the previous month.
Nonetheless, it is predicted that by 2024, the world’s daily crude oil consumption will reach 104.5 mb/d.
According to the OPEC Reference Basket (ORB), the average price of crude oil fell by $5.53, or 6.2%, on a month-over-month basis in May, to $83.59 a barrel.
The average price of a barrel of oil futures fell as well; the ICE Brent front-month contract fell $6.00, or 6.7%, to $83.00.
Effects of Nigeria’s declining oil production
Nigeria’s crude oil production is declining, which emphasizes the oil sector’s erratic performance as it tries to raise daily production levels.
With its crude oil output for the month coming in at 1.25 million bpd, Nigeria will miss its 2024 budget benchmark and its OPEC production limit for the fifth time in a row, which will lower expected revenue.
The nation might find solace in the fact that crude oil prices have risen over the $78 per barrel budget objective for 2024.
However, as the nation works to increase its revenue base, decreasing crude oil production means lower earnings from oil sales.
The ongoing decline of Nigeria’s OPEC quota is another drawback to the country’s diminishing oil production. After the nation’s production in 2023 fell well short of its 1.7 million barrels per day production cap set by OPEC, the cartel decided to reduce it to 1.5 million barrels per day for 2024.
Nigeria is aiming for a 2 million barrel per day crude oil production, but OPEC+ just set the country’s 2025 crude oil production quota at 1.5 million barrels during the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMCC) meeting.
