Nigeria regains position as Africa’s number one crude oil producer

Nigeria has reclaimed the first position as Africa’s largest crude oil producer by increasing its output to 1.3 million barrels per day in May, from 1.1 million barrels per day recorded in the preceding month of April 2023.

This is according to data released by the Organization of Petroleum Producing Countries (OPEC) for crude oil production for the month of May, 2023.

The organization, in its June 2023 Monthly Oil Market Report, disclosed that the figure was based on data it sourced from secondary sources.

With the latest record, Nigeria has b£aten Angola, whose output stood at 1.1 mb/d, to become Africa’s highest producer while Equatorial Guinea becomes the least with 56,000 bpd.

“According to secondary sources, total OPEC-13 crude oil production averaged 28.06 mb/d in May 2023, lower by 464 tb/d m-o-m.

Crude oil output increased mainly in Nigeria, IR Iran and Angola, while production in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait declined,” OPEC said.