By Omoh Gabriel
Nigeria earned a total of N1.784 trillion from the export of 230.8 million barrel of crude in the first half of 2009. Available data at the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, the Department of Petroleum Resources DPR, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation show that Nigeria oil export has started to show sign of improvement as it is expected to export 1.98 million barrel per day in September going by orders from oil importing countries that buys Nigeria crude.
This is an improvement over the 1.75 million barrel per day lifting in the August. Vanguard investigation show that about 64 full/part cargoes are expected to lift crude from Nigeria in September against the 60 cargoes that are booked fro the month of August. According to available data the Ultra light Agbami stream accounts for 260,000 bpd and Nigeria is suspected to be producing well above its OPEC output quota.
According to officials of NNPC “Nigeria will export 64 full or part cargoes of crude oil in September carrying an average of 1.98 million barrels per day (bpd), up from 1.75 million bpd in 60 cargoes in August. The exports include eight cargoes, or 260,000 bpd, of Agbami crude oil that officials argue is really condensate because it is very light”.
According to figures obtained from CBN in January Nigeria earned a total of $1.663 billion from the export of 40.3 million barrel of crude. A break down of the data show that Nigeria produced 1.75 million barrel per day in January giving a total production of 54.25 million, exported on the average 1.30 million barrel of crude per day at an average price of $44.95 per barrel. In the month of February it produced on the average 1.8 million barrels per day amounting to a total of 50.4 million barrels for the month and exported a total of 37.8 million barrels for the month at the rate of 1.35 million barrels per day thus generating a total income of $1.758 billion for the country. In the month of March while domestic production was at the rate of 1.78 million barrels per day the total production was 55.18 million barrels. Export of crude for the month stood at an average of 1.33 million barrel per day amounting to 41.23 million barrels which fetched a total sum of $2.049 billion into the federation account at an average price of $49.7 per barrel.
A further break down of the data show that while the average price of Nigeria crude was $51.16 in the month of April, total domestic production was 51.3 million barrels at 1.71 million barrel per day. Total crude export for the month was 37.8 million barrels at the rate of 1.26 million barrel a day. This resulted to the sum of $1.9338 billion accruals into the federation account.
In May the average price of Nigeria crude was $60 per barrel, total domestic production was 52.7 million barrels. Daily production was recorded as 1.7 million barrel per day against the 1.25 million that was exported bring total crude export for the month of May 2009 to 38.75 from which the nation realised $2.492 billion. In the same vein, in the month of June government figure show that the average price Nigeria crude was sold stood at $72.24 per barrel.
Domestic production has a record of 1.6 million barrel per day totalling 48 million barrels for the month. Export stood at 1.15 million barrels per day with 34.5 million barrels as total export figure for the month. This generated a total revenue of $2.492 billion into the federation account.
Nigeria is a member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and has an implied production quota of 1.67 million bpd.
Government officials argue that most of the exported crude are condensate which do not count against OPEC quota but crude traders say that even excluding the Agbami crude exports, Nigeria may still be well above its quota. The Nigerian loading programme for September includes four delayed cargoes of Forcados crude oil and five cargoes of Bonny Light, both grades under force majeure by the operator.
The export figure for August has been revised up despite numerous delays to loadings following militant attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta. Nigeria has a nominal installed oil production capacity of around 3 million bpd, but violence in the Delta and funding problems have prevented the country from coming anywhere near that total in recent years.
