Maduekwe disputes Ajumogobia on production figures

THE traditional dispute over the correct Nigeria’s oil production figure came up again weekend when Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Ojo Maduekwe, declared that the nation’s oil output was much lower than reported by the industry.

According to a report by Reuters, Ojo Maduekwe stated that previously released figures on Nigerian production are much lower than reported, about half-a-million barrels per day (bpd) lower.

In September, Odein Ajumogobia was quoted as saying that the country was producing at around two million bpd, OPEC has it at 1.9 million, and traders of Nigerian crude had the figure pegged at around 1.95 million bpd.

However, Maduekwe was quoted as saying "The information I had over the weekend is that we are producing 1.5 million barrels of oil."

The country has a capacity of around 2.5 million bpd but over the past few years militant troubles have moved a significant amount of production off the table.

Operators who have had production shut in at one time or another have generally been able to resume partial production, only to have it shut back in again or have production shut in at alternate locations.

Nigeria’s militant troubles also led to it losing its position as Africa’s number one producer to Angola for a couple of months earlier this year. If the figure Maduekwe stated is correct, the country could find itself sliding a couple places down the list. OPEC production numbers for Angola over the month of August were at 1,892 million bpd.