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Top 5 oil producing African countries as of August 2023

Oil production is distributed widely in Africa, but the resources are heavily concentrated in the West and North regions.
10 African countries with the largest crude oil production output in 2021
10 African countries with the largest crude oil production output in 2021

Africa is a rich continent with considerable oil and gas resources that have the potential to propel the continent toward accelerated growth and development.

Within the global context, Africa proudly claims five of the top 30 oil-producing nations, reflecting its substantial contribution to the world's energy supply. 

The continent has 125.3 billion barrels of crude oil reserves and 17.55 trillion standard cubic metres of natural gas, and according to S&P Global Platts, almost 40% of global new gas discoveries in the last decade were in Africa.

While crude oil and natural gas production is distributed widely in Africa, the resources are heavily concentrated in the West and North regions.

However, fascinating dynamics have emerged among Africa's leading oil producers. 

For many years, more crude oil was produced in Nigeria than in any other African country. However, unplanned production outages—or disruptions—in Nigeria have sometimes resulted in its crude oil production falling below that of Angola, the second-highest producing country in Africa, and even Libya. 

Oil production from the 13 members of the organisation, OPEC, averaged 27.45 million barrels per day (mb/d) in August 2023, higher by 113 thousand barrels per day (tb/d) on a month-on-month, OPEC said in its Monthly Oil Market Report released on Tuesday.

Here are the top 5 oil-producing African countries for August 2023.

RankCountryOil output
1Libya1.192 mbpd
2Nigeria1.1. mbpd
3Angola1.1. mbpd
4Algeria939,000 bpd
5Congo282,000 bpd
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