Uche Cecil Izuora
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has released a data which shows that Nigeria’s crude oil production fell to 1.31 million barrels per day (bpd) in February.
The Organization in its monthly report released on Thursday, said Nigeria’s oil production figure represented a 10.69 per cent decline from 1.45 million bpd output in the prior month.
It said its production figures were derived from direct communication with Nigerian authorities.
OPEC usually sourced its crude oil output data from two channels: direct communication from member countries and secondary sources, such as energy intelligence platforms.
The latest figures showed that Nigeria failed to meet its 1.5 million bpd production quota, falling short by about 190,000 bpd, but however appreciated that Nigeria sustained its position as Africa’s leading oil producer, surpassing Libya, which recorded an output of 1.28 million bpd.
The OPEC said data from secondary sources placed Nigeria’s crude production at 1.46 million bpd in February — a 0.68 per cent drop from the 1.47 million bpd recorded in January.
Citing secondary sources, OPEC said member nations’ “total DoCcrude oil production averaged 42.72 mb/d in February 2026, which is 445 tb/d higher, m-o-m”.
On March 2, OPEC and its allies agreed to raise oil production by 206,000 bpd from April amid growing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
The Middle East conflict, caused by the United States-Israeli war on Iran had triggered significant volatility in global markets as crude oil prices crossed a $100 per barrel on March 9 — the highest level since July 2022 — before easing to $87 the next day.
The decline in crude oil production will reduce Nigeria’s oil revenue and prevent the country from fully benefiting from the rising crude oil prices.