Nigeria: Press zooms in on drop in crude oil production to 1.23mbpd, others

The report that Nigeria’s crude oil production witnessed the second consecutive monthly decline since the beginning of this year, as it dropped to 1.231 million barrels per day in March, according to OPEC is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Friday.
The Punch reports that Nigeria’s crude oil production witnessed the second consecutive monthly decline since the beginning of this year, as it dropped to 1.231 million barrels per day in March, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries stated on Thursday.
OPEC disclosed this in its latest Monthly Oil Market Report for April 2024, stating that crude oil production details which it got through direct communication from Nigeria showed that the country pumped less oil in March when compared to what was produced in February.
Data from the report indicated that Nigeria produced 1.322 million barrels per day of crude in February this year, but this dropped to 1.231mbpd in March, representing a plunge of 91mbpd.
The report further stated that the country had produced 1.427mbpd of crude in January, but this was not sustained in February as it dropped in that month, while the southward oil production continued in March.
OPEC data, however, showed that the country’s average crude oil production in the first quarter of 2024 was 1.327mbpd, higher than the 1.313mbpd average oil production in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Nigeria’s first quarter oil output in 2024 was also higher than the 1.201mbpd average production in the third quarter of last year.
Oil theft and pipeline vandalism have dealt severe blows on Nigeria’s oil production, limiting the country’s output and making it fall below the volume approved for Nigeria by OPEC.
The newspaper says that gunmen kidnapped a journalist and reporter with Channels Television, Mr Joshua Rogers, at his residence in Rumuosi in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State on Thursday night.
Rogers, who covers the Rivers State Government House for his organisation, was reportedly trailed after he closed from work to his residence.
The miscreants accosted him before he alighted from his car, pointed a gun at him and whisked him along with his vehicle off to an unknown destination at about 9 pm.
A source who said he doesn’t want his name mentioned said the reporter had earlier covered an event in Ndoni in the Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni Local Government Area of the state where Governor Siminalayi Fubara, inaugurated a Primary Healthcare Centre.
The facility was built and donated to the state by the PAMO Educational Foundation, founded by former Rivers governor, Dr Peter Odili, on Thursday.
The source said, “Yes, he was kidnapped last night at his residence in Rumuosi and taken away in his car by some unknown gunmen.
“We are appealing to the kidnappers to release him immediately and unhurt. He is just a journalist doing his job and not a moneybags. So I don’t know the purpose of his kidnap.”
The Vanguard Newspaper reports that amidst on-going dust raised by the new electricity tariff at the backdrop of inadequate power supply, electricity generation nosedived to 2,775 megawatts, MW, yesterday, a 32.3 percent decline from 4,099.87MW recorded last week.
This was contained in the data released by the Nigeria Electricity System Operator, NESO, a semi autonomous unit of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN.
Findings by Vanguard indicated that there has been no improvement in the power value chain despite the recent review of Band A power consumers billing as there is inadequate supply of gas to the thermal stations, including the poor state of transmission lines as generation averages 4200 megawatts since this year.
Information supplied by the Independent System Operator, ISO, showed that as at 6pm yesterday, load allocation to the eleven DisCos which stood at 2,775.00 Mega watts gave Abuja Disco the highest allocation at 428MW, followed by Ikeja Electric at 422MW, Eko Disco at 359MW, Ibadan Disco at 335MW, Benin Disco at 227MW and Enugu Disco at 200MW.
The distribution companies with the lowest allocation were Yola Disco at 79MW, Jos Disco at 158MW, Kaduna Disco at 181MW, Kano Disco at 188MW and Port Harcourt Disco at 198MW.
This showed that generation was inadequate for transmission and distribution to households and organization in different parts of the nation, a development that pushed the Electricity Distribution Companies, DISCOs to embark on load shedding in order to spread the limited electricity to many at different times.
The newspaper says that thevalue of manufactured goods imported into the country rose Year-on-Year (YoY) by 268.76 percent to N9.03 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2023 (Q4’23) from N2.45 trillion in the same period in 2022.
The figure also rose by 128.12 percent when compared to N3.96 trillion recorded in the third quarter of 2023 (Q3’23).
Details of the National Bureau of Statistics’ (NBS) report, ‘Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics’ for Q4 2023, show that manufactured goods dominated the imports for the period, accounting for 64 percent of total imports valued at N14.11trillion during the period.
On the other hand, the value of manufactured goods exports stood at N234.96 billion in Q4, 2023, a 24.45 percent YoY decline from N311.01 billion recorded in Q4’22.
The report also shows that manufactured goods mainly imported during the review period were tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, motorised, whet’ from Singapore valued at N5.061 trillion followed by used vehicles, with diesel or semidiesel engine imported from the United States and Italy valued at N94.27 billion and N6.69 billion respectively.
Other goods imported include parts of other gas turbines ‘not specified’ from The United States and Germany at N1.14 billion and N1.12 billion respectively, while machines for reception, conversion and transmission of voice, images or data valued at N6.46 billion were imported from China during the period.
A shift to importation of goods hitherto manufactured in Nigeria by some multinationals that recently closed ground operation in the country due to foreign exchange (forex) volatility, naira devaluation and energy crises among others, may partly account for the increase in the value of manufactured goods import within the period under the review.
GIK/APA