The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has reported that Nigeria’s oil output dropped by about 64,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1,896,000 bpd in February 2015.

In its latest monthly oil market report released on Tuesday, OPEC said the year-on-year comparison to February 2014 output of 1.928 million bpd showed a drop of 32,000 bpd.

Nigeria produced more crude in January despite the many cases of disruptions on the Nembe Creek pipeline and the Trans Forcados oil pipeline which shut out about 410,000 barrels of crude per day for close to two weeks.

Speaking on the new development, an oil and gas analyst who spoke on the condition of anonymity said; “It is obvious that the shift in elections and the political uncertainty impacted negatively on activities in the oil and gas sector”.

Despite the drop, Nigeria maintained its position as Africa’s number one oil producer in February followed by Angola and Algeria with an output of 1.75 million bpd and 1.11 million bpd respectively. Total OPEC crude oil production averaged 30.02 million bpd in February, a decrease of 0.14 million bpd from the previous month.

“Crude oil output decreased mostly from Iraq, Nigeria and Libya, while production was on the increase in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. OPEC crude oil production, not including Iraq, stood at 26.70 million bpd in February, down by 0.06 million bpd from the previous month”, the report said.

The share of OPEC crude oil in total global production decreased slightly to 32.1 percent in February, compared with January numbers. The OPEC Reference Basket (ORB) rebounded in February by its largest percentage rise since December 2008, reflecting gains in the major benchmarks as prompt demand improved in European and Asian markets amid healthy refining economics, although oversupply worries continue to overwhelm oil markets.