TheCable

Nigeria’s oil production declined by 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) in June due to oil theft, operational difficulties, and maintenance, according to a Reuters survey. 

The survey noted that the decline represented the second-largest oil production dip in Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member countries.

The survey, published on Friday, noted that the biggest monthly decline was in Libya, where supply dropped by 170,000 bpd as humanitarian and political-military unrest continued to curb the country’s output. 

Reuters said it used shipping data provided by external sources, Refinitiv Eikon flows data and information from tanker trackers such as Petro-Logistics for the survey. Others came from information provided by sources at oil companies, OPEC and consultants.

“Libya is one of the members exempt from making voluntary cuts,” Reuters said. 

“The second-largest decline of 80,000 bpd came from Nigeria, where outages and maintenance curbed output.”

Citing other sources, the report said production decline in Nigeria was as high as 100,000 bpd.

Iraqi supply also fell as a result of low exports.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait increased production by a combined 130,000 bpd. 

However, Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s biggest producer, pumped about 100,000 bpd below its quota, the survey found.

Production in Iran and Venezuela also edged higher.

Reuters said the drop in production in Nigeria and Libya outweighed oil output increases by Saudi Arabia and other large producers. 

The development also affected the oil cartel’s ability to deliver on its oil output quota for June. 

OPEC and its allies targeted to increase production in June by 432,000 bpd, of which about 275,000 bpd was shared by the 10 OPEC member countries that the agreement covers.

On Thursday, OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, agreed to add 648,000 bpd in August.