African countries

In 2010, west African countries were pumping close to 5.5 million barrels a day of crude and condensate, about 7% of global production. By 2021, that had fallen ...

The situation has gotten so bad in recent months that one of the biggest pipelines carrying crude across the region — the 180,000 barrel a day Trans-Niger Pipeline — was forced to shut in June after flows slowed to a trickle. That’s a tall order and would take production to a level that it has not reached in more than two and a half years. By 2021, that had fallen to little more than 3.5 million barrels a day, and the region’s share of the total had dropped by two percentage points. Neither has been able to restore the output that was shut between April and June 2020, even as their targets began to rise in early 2021. In 2010, west African countries were pumping close to 5.5 million barrels a day of crude and condensate, about 7% of global production. Years of under-investment, theft, sabotage and civil strife have combined with harsh operating conditions to undermine the region’s oil production, sending it into a slump from which it may never recover.