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Oil production crashes to lowest level in seven months

By BusinessNews Staff on December 6, 2013

The crude oil production from Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude exporter, dropped to 1.89 million barrels per day in November, the lowest production level in seven months.

The last time the country, which is targeting four million barrels per day production, produced at this new lowest level was in May 2013.

A global crude market survey of oil companies, producers and analysts by Reuters, which showed this dip in production, revealed that Nigeria lost an average of 100, 000 barrels per day in November.

“Production is often disrupted by the crude theft and unrest in the Niger River delta, the country’s main oil-producing region,” the report reveals.

It continues: “Output by the 12-member Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries decreased 245,000 barrels to an average 30.007 million barrels a day this month from 30.252 million in October, the survey showed.

“The October total was revised lower by 369,000 barrels a day because of changes to the Nigeria, Saudi and Libyan estimates.”

This came as the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) held a road show in Lagos for the 2013 Marginal fields’ bid round.

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, had said that the bid round, which would be concluded in 2014, is to augment crude production in the country.

Alison-Madueke, who declared the bid round open in Abuja last week stated that a total of 31 fields are on offer with sixteen (16) of them located onshore, while the remaining fifteen (15) are in the continental shelf.

The bid round is, according to a statement by General Manager Media Relations Department, Group Public Affairs Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, aimed at deepening the participation of indigenous oil companies in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry.

This strategic effort, Alison-Madueke said, is designed to boost the participation of Nigerian indigenous companies in the upstream and to generally increase exploration and production activities in the oil and gas sector to the benefit of Nigerians and the Nigerian economy.

“Over the next two weeks, the Department of Petroleum Resources will undertake a road show to different parts of the country about the program. This will be followed by a three and a half-month of competitive bidding process in line with the Federal Government’s commitment to openness and transparency in the conduct of business activities in the country” she stated.

[Daily Independent]

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