Nigeria’s revenue from crude oil export increased by N337bn in March, hitting N1.8tn, according to data obtained.
This came as the country attained its crude oil production target of 1.6 million barrels per day in March, from 1.3 million barrels per day recorded in February. Output for January was 1.25mbp while that of February was 1.3mbp.
Shipping data from Refinitiv Eikon seen by The PUNCH showed that the country attained 1.6mb/d production target for the first quarter of 2023.
The country’s output increase has in turn contributed significantly to the 28.90 mbpd of oil produced by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries for the month of March.
The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, had in December 2022, during the World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update and Country Economic Memorandum in Abuja, said the country planned that its crude oil production would hit 1.6mbpd by the first quarter of 2023.
A leap in production by 300, 000b/d in March means the country’s production has shot up by 9.3 million barrels in the period under review. Total production for the month was 49, 600, 000 barrels.
While Brent’s international price was $77per barrel, Nigeria’s Bonny Light was sold for $78 in March. This means the country raked in extra N337bn for the month. Total revenue from crude oil production was about N1.8tn.
Nigeria had been unable to meet OPEC production quota in the last one year.
During the Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting last September, a presentation by the NNPCL said Nigeria lost as much as 8.14 million barrels in August.
The PUNCH had reported how the contribution of the oil sector to the Gross Domestic Product of the country fell to 5.7 per cent in the third quarter of this year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics data.
Ahmed had said the nation’s Excess Crude Account crashed by 89 per cent in the last eight years, moving from $4.1bn in November 2014 to $472,513 in the same period of 2022.
