Angola has overtaken Nigeria as the biggest oil producer in Africa.
With the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, market volatility in the global oil sector has increased even more after the COVID-19 pandemic. African producers are under increasing pressure to expand production as the G7 and EU are contemplating gradually ceasing to import Russian oil.
The COVID-19 situation and the geopolitical developments in Eastern Europe, both contributed to the volatility of the oil market over the course of the year, and prompted central banks to revise their monetary policies, according to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Due to insecurity and damage to oil infrastructure, nations like Nigeria saw a dramatic fall in their oil production, and its overall oil performance plummeted throughout the year 2022. Despite these problems, Africa continues to be a major producer of oil on a worldwide scale, and oil-rich nations on the continent nonetheless managed to obtain a portion of the oil quota demanded of them.
Based on feedback from Nigeria, it has been established that by working with security agencies, regulators, oil-producing communities, and other stakeholders to prevent oil theft, they managed to increase production in December, according to Bala Wunti, Chief Investment Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
Based on reports obtained by Opec from secondary sources, within Africa Nigeria, Angola and Libya saw the largest increases in crude oil production, while Egypt and Libya saw declines.
Nevertheless, here are the 5 oil-producing nations that are ahead of the pack in Africa for 2022 thanks to recent exploration efforts and breakthroughs across the continent.
Country
December oil production in thousands & millions of barrels per day (mb/d)
Angola
1.16 million BPD
Nigeria
1.02 million BPD
Algeria
970,000 BPD
Libya
946,000 BPD
Egypt
556,440 BPD