The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in its 2021 Annual Statistical Bulletin has reported a drop of 543 million barrels in the crude oil reserves of Nigeria.

Figures on world proven oil reserves by country indicated that Nigeria’s oil reserves dropped from 37.453 billion barrels in 2016 to 36.910 billion barrels in 2020.

Further analysis of the latest OPEC bulletin showed that the country’s oil reserves stayed at 37.453 billion barrels in 2017, before dropping to 36.972 billion barrels in 2018 and 36.890 billion barrels in 2019.

OPEC, an organisation that has Nigeria as a long-standing member, also stated that the country’s active oil rigs during the five-year period increased from nine in 2016 to 49 in 2020. 

It further stated that Nigeria’s active crude oil rigs in 2017, 2018 and 2019 were 13, 32 and 17 respectively.

According to the cartel, the number of oil wells that were completed in Nigeria moved up from 76 in 2016 to 81 in 2020.

The country also completed 76, 81 and 100 oil wells in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively.

On daily and cumulative crude oil production, OPEC stated that the average daily production of oil in Nigeria in 2020 was 1.486 million barrels, while the cumulative production in the same year was 34.42 billion barrels.

The report showed that while the country’s average crude oil production was 1.43 million barrels per day in 2016, it moved up to 1.54mbpd in 2017.

Also, the average daily crude oil production in Nigeria increased in 2018 and 2019, as the country recorded 1.6mbpd and 1.74mbpd respectively in both years.

The country’s average daily oil production, however, dropped to 1.49mbpd in 2020, according to statistics released by OPEC.