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AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil
Nigerian liquids production H1 (in bpd, from posted NUPRC data)
-
APRIL MAY JUNE Unblended Condensate
2022
1,800,000 1,600,000 1,400,000 1,200,000 1,000,000
800,000 600,000 400,000 200,000
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JANUARY
Crude Oil Blended Condensate
FEBRUARY
MARCH
Those who remove crude from pipelines can then sell it on the black market, send it to under- ground refineries or otherwise prevent it from reaching export terminals. Vanguard reported last week that theft of this type cut the amount of oil reaching the market in Nigeria by 200,000- 400,000 bpd in the first half of this year.
These losses cause the country to lose billions of dollars in revenue each year, the newspaper noted. They have also prevented the country from meeting its OPEC production quotas in full, it added.
The production declines appear to have per- sisted beyond the first half of 2022. Additional
NUPRC data cited by This Day on August 7 show that Nigeria extracted just 1.083mn bpd of oil in the month of July, 6.48% below the June figure of 1.158mn bpd.
This is once again significantly below the OPEC quota, which was set at 1.799mn bpd for the period in question.
Oil theft and sabotage are widespread in the southern part of the country, in the Niger River Delta area. There is a long history of tension between communities in the region and the government – and international oil companies (IOCs) as well – over environmental damage and distribution of revenue. ™
EC official: Nigerian LNG exports to Europe could double in long term
NIGERIA
MATTHEW Baldwin, the European Commis- sion’s deputy director-general for energy, has said he believes Nigeria has the potential to see natural gas exports to Europe more than double in the long term.
In an exclusive interview with Premium Times last week, Baldwin noted that Nigeria accounted for 14% of the LNG now being deliv- ered to the European Union. The West African country has enough gas to push that figure up to more than 30% in the long run, he said, while also stressing that he did not have the authority to make any supply commitments.
“I do not want to put a number on that ... partly because I am not the negotiator for the gas contracts. That is for the companies to look at ... but companies are interested in bringing more
LNG from Nigeria, and if you look at the total potential LNG reserves in Nigeria, it could go all the way from 14% to something in the 30s. So this is a huge potential that we see here in Nige- ria as a partner,” he told Premium Times.
Baldwin also serves as head of the EC’s Energy Platform Task Force (EPTF), which was established earlier this year to support efforts to reduce the bloc’s dependence on Russian oil and gas supplies. He spoke with the newspaper dur- ing a fact-finding mission in Nigeria, noting that the West African country was the first place he had visited as head of EPTF.
In the interview, he was asked why the EU was seeking to buy Nigerian gas even as it pro- claimed its determination to reduce fossil fuel consumption.
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