Africa’s Oil Producing Nations Struggle to Meet Demand

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries raised output by 190,000 barrels a day in January, according to a Bloomberg survey. That fits with an agreement between the group and its allies to revive some of the supplies halted during the pandemic. Yet the monthly change is barely two-thirds of the scheduled amount, as increases by OPEC’s Persian Gulf exporters were offset by disruptions in Nigeria and Libya. In Libya, a member exempted from the pact because of previous chronic outages, production fell by 60,000 barrels a day to 1.16 million after a leak forced the closing of a critical pipeline for more than a week. Nigeria also saw output decline, by 50,000 barrels a day to 1.47 million, after Royal Dutch Shell Plc asked to suspend deliveries of Forcados crude because of pipeline leaks. Flows from Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Qua Iboe facility also slipped amid an on-going force majeure that lifted earlier this month. In recent years, the country’s exports have occasionally been hobbled by leaks and sabotage on its pipeline network. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Algeria revived output in accordance with the agreement, the survey showed.

SOURCE: BLOOMBERG