Oil vessel
Chika Amanze-Nwachuku
Nigeria and other members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) exported 4.5 million barrels of oil per day (mbpd) in 2011, according to the group’s just released 2012 Annual Statistical Bulletin (ASB).
The ASB is a compilation of statistical data about oil and natural gas activities in OPEC’s 12 Member Countries – Nigeria, Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela as well as in non-OPEC oil producing countries around the world.
It provides detailed time-series data on different aspects of the global petroleum industry, including imports and exports, upstream and downstream projects, and exploration and production activities.
OPEC, which supplies a third of the world’s crude, said the bulk of the product went to Asian and Pacific countries with 2.1 mbpd, representing 49.8 per cent of the total. North American and Latin American countries, it said, followed with 0.6 mbpd or 13.6 per cent, and 0.5 mbpd or 11.8 per cent, respectively.
Some highlights from this year’s ASB showed that world crude oil production increased in 2011 by 0.9 per cent, with different regions showing heterogeneous results. The ASB also revealed that while Canadian, US and Middle East crude production increased, Western European and African production showed declines.
The recent bulletin further revealed that in OPEC member countries, crude oil production was up 3 per cent in 2011 year-on-year.
The release noted that world oil consumption last year also increased by 0.9 per cent, but this growth was seen solely in emerging economies, primarily in Asia - and in particular, China - but also in Latin America and the Middle East.
But in OPEC member countries, oil consumption increased by 0.2 mb/d or 2 per cent year-on-year. Proven crude oil reserves in OPEC countries increased slightly in 2011, almost reaching 1.2 billion barrels, the release added.
OPEC said its percentage share of reserves stood at 81 per cent at year-end, largely unchanged from 2010, with proven natural gas reserves of 95,020 billion standard cubic metres, an increase of 0.8 per cent over 2010, making a total world share of 48.4 per cent.