Nigeria’s crude oil sales hit N11.5trn in Q3 2018

…Earns about $26bn in first seven months of 2018 Exportation of crude oil from Nigeria between January to September 2018, stood at N11.49 trillion, an increase of N3.72 trillion when compared to N7.77 trillion recorded in the corresponding period in 2017. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Foreign Trade Statistics for Q3 2018 show that the exportation of crude oil in the third quarter of 2018 was N4.146 trillion, which is an increase of 9.11 per cent over Q2 2018 amount of N3.76 trillion, a 13.68 per cent increase over N3.57 trillion in Q1 2018, and 21.5 per cent increase over N3.25 trillion in Q4 2017. The statistics office also reported that the top 5 countries Nigeria exported crude oil to include India (N719.16 billion), Spain (N463.08 billion), France (N422.52 billion), South Africa (N334.98 billion), and Netherlands (N260.73 billion). However, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), sometime in August 2018 said Nigeria earned about $26 billion in the first seven months of 2018 from the exportation of crude oil. The stagnancy the industry faced in the second quarter of 2018 was as a result of Nigeria’s crude oil exports under pressure because the United States flooded Europe market with a large volume of crude oil. The Brent, against which Nigeria’s oil is priced, rose by $0.37 to $74.43 per barrel within this period as compared to around $66 at the start of the year. The relatively high prices brought about by a pact in OPEC in cutting output jointly by 1.8 million barrels per day, coupled with the surging US output, made it harder to sell Russian, Nigerian and other oil grades in Europe. Temitope Adebayo