Angola to overtake Nigeria as highest crude producer by 2016

By Michael Eboh, with Agency Report

Angola will overtake Nigeria as the largest crude oil producing country in Africa by 2016, the International Energy Agency, IEA, declared yesterday.

According to a report by the IEA, factors that will work against Nigeria include the non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, and crude oil theft.
The IEA said, “The shift will in part be due to an expected increase in production in Angola, but much of it is the result of domestic issues in Nigeria.”

According to the IEA, Nigeria currently loses 150,000 barrels a day to oil theft, the equivalent of $5 billion a year.

“On top of that regulatory uncertainty, the result of a seemingly-permanently stalled Petroleum Industry Bill, has led to delays in investment decisions,” it said.

Commenting on the development, IEA’s Chief Economist, Fatih Birol said: “What will put Nigeria second are uncertainty over the Nigerian investment framework, oil theft and governance issues.”

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in its Annual Statistics Bulletin for 2013, put Nigeria’s total crude oil and condensate production for the year at 800.488 million barrels giving a daily average of 2.19 million barrels per day, dropping by six per cent from the previous year’s production.

In the gas sector, the NNPC said a total of 2,325.14 billion Standard Cubic Feet (BSCF) of Natural Gas production was reported by twenty-five (25) Companies, representing a decrease of 9.88 per cent when compared with 2012 production.

- Culled from: http://www.vanguardngr.com