NIGERIA raked in $236.2 billion from the proceeds made from crude oil exports between 2014 to 2018,  according to the OPEC  latest report.

This was revealed in the 54th edition of the Annual Statistical Bulletin, ASB, released by OPEC, which ranks Nigeria in sixth place amongst  OPEC countries examined and the highest oil revenue earner in Africa in the five-year timeline.

Countries examined in the report include Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Congo, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Angola, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

Nigeria earned its highest revenue from oil exports for the period under review, receiving $75.196 billion in 2014, $54.513 billion in 2018 and $41.168bn in 2015 respectively.

Saudi Arabia sits on top of the table with the highest oil exports revenue with $194.4 billion followed by United Arab Emirates’ $74.9 billion, Iraq’s $68.2 billion, Iran’s $60.2 billion and Kuwait’s $58.4 billion.

The report assessed the OPEC member countries using economic indicators based on GDP growth and current account balance, which improved majorly in 2018.

However, the report also revealed that Nigeria’s proven oil reserves were on a steady decline due to exploratory activities leading to increased oil production and output expansions.

For the period under review, Nigeria’s oil reserves were pegged at 37,448 billion barrels in 2014 but dropped significantly to 36,972 billion barrels in 2018.

“With regard to countries with increasing oil production in 2018, output expansions were clearly driven by North America, notably by the United States. Oil supply in the US increased by around 2.3m barrels per day in the year 2018, representing almost 80 per cent of total non-OPEC supply growth,” the report states.

Also, the volume of crude oil exported, by OPEC member countries sold an average of 24.67 million barrels per day in 2018, a slight increase of about 14,000 barrels per day, which is about 0.1 per cent increase compared to 2017.

OPEC and Russia -led oil producing nations formed an alliance tagged OPEC+ which had agreed to cut down inventories and remove 1.2 million barrels per day of crude oil from global markets on January 1, in a bid to raise oil prices.

In April, OPEC members bound by the agreement achieved 132 per cent of pledged cuts, compared to 145 per cent in March, due to higher production in Nigeria which did not fulfill its OPEC benchmark and small increases in Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

The report states that 2018 witnessed a substantial global supply growth as total oil liquids production increased significantly by 2.60 million barrels per day, outpacing oil demand growth by more than one million barrels per day.

It also noted that member countries have successfully continued to improve the diversification of their economies and be less dependent on petroleum export revenues.