TheCable

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) says Nigeria’s oil output increased by six percent to 1.39 million barrels per day (bpd) in January 2022.

OPEC said this in its monthly oil market report (MOMR) for February 2022.

According to the report, crude oil output increased mainly in Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait, while production in Venezuela, Libya and Iraq declined.

The figures showed that Nigeria recorded about 81,000 barrels per day compared to 1.31 million barrels per day in December 2021.

The oil cartel said prices were supported by strong oil market fundamentals amid COVID-19 Omicron variant fears and geopolitical risks.

“The OPEC Reference Basket increased $11.03, or 14.8 per cent, to settle at $85.41/b in January, its highest monthly value since September 2014,” OPEC said.

Similarly, crude oil futures prices increased on both sides of the Atlantic with the ICE Brent front-month up $10.77, or 14.4 per cent, in January to average $85.57/b and NYMEX WTI rising by $11.29, or 15.7 percent, to average $82.98/b. As a result, the Brent/WTI futures spread narrowed by 52¢ to an average of $2.59/b.

“The market structure of all three crude benchmarks — ICE Brent, NYMEX WTI and DME Oman — strengthened significantly in January over the previous month as market perception of the outlook for the supply-demand balance improved.”

Highlighting the Nigerian economy, OPEC said Stanbic IBTC production managers index (PMI) dropped in January amid the softest improvement in the business condition.

“Nigeria’s annual inflation rate edged up to 15.6 per cent y-o-y in December 2021 from 15.4 per cent y-o-y in November 2021 amid a slight acceleration in food prices linked to the increase in demand during the festive season. On a monthly basis, consumer prices inched up by 1.82 per cent following a 1.08 per cent increase in November 2021,” the report added.

“In 2021, annual price inflation averaged 17 perecnt, up from 13.2 percent in 2020. Despite the latest uptick in headline inflation, in January 2022, the Central Bank of Nigeria kept its monetary policy rate steady at a six-year low of 11.5 percent.

“The Stanbic IBTC Bank Nigeria PMI dropped to 53.7 in January of 2022 from 56.4 in December 2021, amid the softest improvement in business conditions. Nevertheless, business sentiment remained optimistic amid plans to expand economic operations, especially in the oil sector as the new Dangote oil refinery is expected to come online towards the end of 2022.”