Nigeria’s quest for continued high revenue inflow from its crude oil sales at the international market have been threatened.
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This is because Nigeria is currently struggling to find buyers for its oil as strikes in the French refining sector and seasonal maintenance at plants elsewhere in Europe cut into the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) producer’s sales, according to Bloomberg.
It reported that around half of Nigeria’s April crude supply remained unsold and that French refinery strikes, and seasonal works in Europe have crippled demand. It said: “Between 20 and 25 shipments of Nigerian crude for April loading are still searching for buyers, according to four traders specializing in the West African market. That’s a much weaker position than normal for this time of the month — when trade should be moving on to May’s barrels — and the prices the shipments can fetch are dropping, they said. Each cargo is about a million barrels of crude.”
Labour strikes in the French refining sector have caused ripple effects across the global oil market as the resulting loss demand added to weakness caused by turmoil in the banking sector. More than half a million barrels a day of oil processing capacity — about 0.5% of global consumption, are projected to be halted by the strike, which has resulted in fewer oil purchases and less supply of refined fuel. The National Assembly had recently passed a N21. 8 trillion budget, pegging Nigeria’s crude oil benchmark at $75 per barrel from the previous $70 per barrel while production for 2023 was put at 1.69 million barrels per day.
However, oil prices have been rising and falling recently as a result of many factors, including the collapse of Silicon Valley Banks, rising interest rates and other challenges in the United States of America and Europe. Prices of oil prices also dipped on Friday after US Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm, said it would take “years” to replenish the country’s strategic stockpiles, undermining hopes that the Federal Government would soon return to the market as a major buyer.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, decreased as much as 4 per cent to $72.68 a barrel while West Texas Intermediate, the US marker, dipped by a similar margin to $66.82 a barrel following Granholm’s comments and amid a broader sell-off in US markets. Also, Nigeria had yet to meet the budget’s oil production target of 1.69mbpd, though recently, it has been increasing its production quota. Nigeria became the topmost increased oil supplier of the OPEC for February 2023 as according to recent OPEC’s Monthly Oil Market Report, Nigeria increased its oil supply by 72,000 barrels per day, from that of January, using secondary sources. Nigeria’s oil production in Decemeber 2022, was 1.271mbpd; January 2023, was 1.308mbpd; and February was 1.380mbpd.
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