Angola has overtaken Nigeria as Africa’s biggest oil producer as militant attacks have crippled production in the oil fidds of the Niger Dealt.
Nigerian output has been hit by dozens of attacks on oil production facilities, which have increased intensity this year and removed at least 300,000 barrels per day (BPD) of crude oil capacity since January.
Angola, increasingly politically stable, safer and more attractive to foreign oil companies, has slowly increased its output and has the potential for much greater production over the next few years, on dominance consolidation.
“If nothing improves in Nigeria, Angola will almost certainly overtake it Nigerian Production is going down and down and they are failing to bring their internal difficulties under control” analyst noted.
Nigerian oil output has plummeted from 2.4 million bpd just before the militant attacks started four years ago and over the last year has averaged around 1.83 million bpd, compared with a little under 1.80 million for Angola.
The gap between the two members of the organisation of petroleum exporting countries (OPEC) has narrowed this year and Angola edged ahead of its West Africa rival last month.
Last month Angola punped 1.82 million bpd of crude oil, compared to 1.73 million from Nigeria, 1.53 million from Libya and 1.24 million from Algeria, Africa’s other major producers.
Angola’s oil industry has the potential for more growth in the next year and analysts expect fierce competition for new ventures when new licensing rounds take place, likely next year.
However, the African energy analyst, at HIS Global Insight, Tom Pearmain, has noted that there will be a “huge interest when they do hold a new licensing round.”