OPEC records biggest increase in March as oil production hits 1.6MBD

The survey showing the production volume of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) for March 2023 and published by Reuters showed that Nigeria’s oil production output witnessed an increase as it almost hit the expected 1.6 million BPD mark.

OPEC+, which includes the 10 OPEC nations and their allies had earlier agreed to reduce their output target by two million BPD from November 2022 through 2023.

This deal would see the 10 OPEC members including Nigeria, target a production volume of 25.416 million BPD during the period, Nigeria's target was pegged at 1.8 Million BPD.

Despite pitfalls in production, Nigeria began to witness a steady increase in production in the last quarter of the year with outputs of about 1.23 million BPD in December 2022.

While speaking at the 13th global UAE virtual energy forum earlier this year, the group chief executive officer (GCEO), of NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, had predicted the production output would hit 2.2 million BPD including condensate this year.

Data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC showing Nigeria’s oil output revealed that in January 2023, 1.25 million BPD was recorded and 1.3 million BPD was recorded in February 2023.

The production volume produced for March came close to 1.6 million BPD. The survey conducted by Reuters showed that despite Nigeria having an increased oil production output, there was a 70,000 BPD drop in the OPEC oil output in March.

The drop in production output was traced to an oilfield maintenance schedule in Angola and a halt in some of Iraq’s exports.