Drums of oil

Nigeria’s earnings from crude oil crashed by N287.95bn in the third quarter of 2022 as a result of the incessant theft of the commodity in the Niger Delta, the Federal Government has said. Oil production figures obtained on Sunday from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, an agency of the Federal Government, showed that oil output dropped by 1.15 million barrels in July 2022, when compared to what was produced in the preceding month. Nigeria produced 34.75 million barrels of crude oil in June, but this dropped to 33.6 million barrels in July. In August, the country’s total oil production was 30.14 million barrels, indicating another crash in output. Hence, Nigeria lost 3.46 million barrels of oil in August, when matched with what was produced in July. The oil production losses continued in September, as total output for the month was 28.13 million barrels. Oil production fell by 2.01 million barrels in September when compared to what the country pumped in August. From the above analysis, it therefore implies that Nigeria’s oil production in the third quarter of 2022 dropped by 1.15 million barrels in July, 3.46 million barrels in August, and 2.01 million barrels in September, making a total of 6.62 million barrels