Nigeria’s crude oil reserves have dropped by at least 543 million barrels, from 37,453 million barrels in 2016 to 36,910 million barrels in 2020.
This is according to the 2021 Annual Statistical Bulletin of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
The drop is coming in spite the federal government’s acclaimed efforts at growing the country’s oil reserves from 36,910 million (36.91 billion) barrels to 50 billion barrels in the short to medium term, in a bid to increase revenue from crude sales.
Figures on world proven oil reserves by country as contained in the bulletin indicated that Nigeria’s oil reserves was 37,453 million barrels in 2017, before dropping to 36,972 million barrels in 2018 and 36,890 million barrels in 2019.
It also showed that the country’s active oil rigs during the five-year period increased from nine in 2016 to 49 in 2020, while active crude oil rigs in 2017, 2018 and 2019 were 13, 32 and 17 respectively.
The number of oil wells that were completed in Nigeria moved up from 76 in 2016 to 81 in 2020 and 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 same year was 34.42 billion barrels.
