Despite some increases, Nigeria's crude oil production rate for September is still behind that of Angola-the country that unseated Nigeria as Africa's top producer in March.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) released the West African country's production data on Wednesday, showing that Nigeria's output rose by 280,700 barrels per day to 1.385 million bpd in September, which is still lower than Angola's 1.649 million bpd rate.
Secondary sources cited by the Energy Mix Report put Nigeria production rate at 1.524 million barrels per day last month, up from 1.429 bpd in August.
When Nigeria lost its title as Africa's largest producer earlier this year, its output fell to 1.677 million barrels per day, as opposed to Angola's 1.782 million bpd.
Attacks on Nigerian oil infrastructure earlier this year dragged the country's daily crude production down by 700,000 bpd, figures by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) from July showed.
As the destructive summer passed, production incrementally increased, though the country is still arms' length away from full capacity.
The Niger Delta Avengers - who claim to fight for socioeconomic equality rather than religious causes - agreed to a ceasefire against further attacks over a month ago, but the group bombed a Bonny crude pipeline at the end of September.
According to the NDA, the pipeline was bombed in response to government attempts of "over dramatization of the so-called dialogue and negotiation process on the side of President Muhammadu Buhari and his government."
Lagos has also sued Chevron, Eni, Total, Shell and Petrobras for illegally exporting crude without reporting the trades to the government. Nigeria claims the companies owe the government $12.7 billion for violations between 2011 and 2014.
By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com
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Zainab Calcuttawala is an American journalist based in Morocco. She completed her undergraduate coursework at the University of Texas at Austin (Hook’em) and reports on… More