The main playersĪ joint venture of Shell and BP was the first to discover oil in Nigeria. While in the past it used to transport the most oil to the United States, now Nigerian oil goes mostly to Asia, Europe, and South America. The country exports most of the oil it produces even though it has a refining capacity of almost 450,000 BPD. That was formed in 1977 under the name National Nigeria Petroleum Company.Īccording to its OPEC file, the West African nation is home to 36.97 billion barrels of proven oil reserves as well as 5.675 trillion cubic metres of natural gas, which explains why the supermajors are not too tired of their problems in Nigeria.

Nigeria joined OPEC in 1971 before it even had its own state oil company. Production grew fast, and today, Nigeria pumps close to 2 million BPD, which makes it the largest producer of crude oil in Africa. The country’s first field began producing in 1958 at a rate of 5,100 BPD. Oil was first discovered in Nigeria in the mid-1950s after decades of fruitless exploration. How did this happen? History of oil in Nigeria Recently, the Nigerian government demanded more than $60 billion in back royalties under a production sharing agreement with the supermajors operating in the country.

Pipeline vandalism, militant attacks on infrastructure, protests and lawsuits are among the issues that have plagued Nigeria’s oil industry for years.

If anyone asks Chevron or Shell, for example, how they feel about Nigeria, the response would probably be that they were tired of problems, at least if they were honest.

Nigeria oil blocks map