Nigeria Earns $40bn from Oil Exports in Six Months

Nigeria has been estimated to have realised about $40 billion from crude oil exports in the first half of this year, according to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The 12-nation member organisation, in its revenue fact sheet, however stated that the Africa’s oil giant had net earnings of about $84 billion in 2013.

This revenue has positioned Nigeria as the fourth highest earner among OPEC members, after Saudi Arabia ($274 billion), Kuwait ($45 billion), and Iraq ($45 billion), during the same period.

Libya earned the least revenue with ($4 billion) after Equador ($5 billion).

The United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) also estimated that excluding Iran, members of the OPEC earned about $826 billion in net oil export revenues in 2013, a seven per cent decrease from 2012 earnings, but the second largest earnings totals during

the 1975 to 2013 period.

OPEC earnings declined largely because of a drop in OPEC oil production in 2013 (due mainly to supply disruption in Libya), and a three per cent slide in average crude oil prices (as measured by the Brent crude oil price marker).

Based on projections from EIA’s July 2014 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), EIA has estimated that OPEC (excluding Iran) could earn about $774 billion in net oil export revenues in 2014 and $723 billion in 2015 (unadjusted for inflation).

These declines from the 2013 level were the result of projected shortfalls in the call on OPEC crude oil production, because of the large increases in non-OPEC production for 2014-15, as well as expected crude oil price declines that were also the result of declines in the call on OPEC crude oil production.

However, the Ministry of Finance had estimated that Nigeria’s oil revenue in July fell by seven per cent month-on-month to N483.5 billion ($3.02 billion), due to disruptions to crude production and exports at facilities operated by Shell and Total in the Niger Delta.

“The decline in revenue is attributable to the force majeure declared by Shell and a series of shutdowns of trunk lines and pipelines at various oil-loading terminals including the Akpo oil field,” it stated.

Thisday