ABUJA (Commodity Online) : Africa’s leading oil producer and world’s eighth largest oil reserves holder, Nigeria said its crude oil reserves dropped by 1.6 billion barrels, nearly 48 percent, in just one year.

According to country’s Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) the drop is due to declining exploration activities and full field studies by oil companies operating in the country.

The companies now concentrate more on drilling and production rather than oil exploration that would boost reserves, said the DPR in a report.

Nigeria’s current oil reserves stand at 31.81 billion barrels and condensate reserves at 5.35 billion barrels. Total oil and condensate reserve was 37. 16 billion barrels, accounting for 3.6 percent of the total.

The West African nation’s oil reserves dropped by 1.6 billion barrels (4.79 per cent); condensate reserves increased by 0.152 billion barrels (2.92 per cent). Country’s current production quota is 1,673,000 barrels.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had projected that the country's oil reserve would hit 40 billion barrels by December this year, with increased in exploration activities especially in the deep offshore.

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