Nigeria’s crude oil production including condensate has taken a dip, falling to 1.999 million barrels per day (bpd) in January 2019 from the 2.081 million bpd in December last year.

The recent figures from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources showed that the decrease is contrary to a production benchmark of 2.3 million bpd used for the 2019 budget estimates by the Federal Government.

However, in its latest monthly oil report released on Tuesday, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said Nigeria’s oil production dropped to 1.687 million bpd in January from the previous 1.797 million bpd.

Recall that OPEC and 10 non-OPEC countries had in December agreed to cut oil production by 1.2 million bpd effective from January for an initial period of six months to shore up what many expected to be weakening market fundamentals ahead.

Nigeria’s oil production was to be cut by 53,000 barrels to arrive at a new quota of 1.685 million bpd, down from the country’s reference production figure of 1.797 million bpd.