Angola and Libya have overtaken Nigeria as the biggest crude oil producers in the African continent.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) disclosed this in its Oil Market Report for September 2022 releases on Tuesday September 13 in Lagos.
The report revealed that Nigeria’s crude oil production for August averaged 1.100 million barrels per day which was 65,000mb/d lower than the 1.164mb/d produced averagely in July.
While Angola was Africa’s highest crude oil producer for the month under review with an average production of 1.187mb/d.
Libya’s crude oil production averaged also 1.123mb/d for the period.
The report said: “According to secondary sources, total OPEC-13 crude oil production averaged 29.65 mb/d in August, higher by 618,000 month-on-month.
Crude oil output increased mainly in Libya and Saudi Arabia, while production in Nigeria declined.”
Nigeria’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose by 3.5 percent year-on-year this year following growth of 3.1 percent in the first quarter of 2022.
“On a quarterly basis, the GDP shrank by 0.37 percent following a 14.66 percent contraction in the previous quarter.
“Nevertheless, the annual inflation rate surged to the highest since September 2005, climbing to 19.6 percent y-o-y in July from 18.6 percent in June.
“This was a result of the weakening naira due to continued high imported input costs as well as soaring fuel prices.
“Moreover, food inflation increased to 22 per cent y-o-y, the highest since May 2021,” the report added.