Nigeria's active oil rig count dropped to 12 in April 2026 from 17 in March, representing a 41.7 per cent month on month decline driven by weakening upstream investment and persistent operational challenges, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has said.
The figures are contained in OPEC's May 2026 Monthly Oil Market Report, which tracks rig count as a primary indicator of exploration, field development and investment activity across member states.
The April reading continues a downward trend that predates the current year. Nigeria's average rig count fell to 13 in 2025 from 15 in 2024, suggesting that the upstream sector has been losing drilling momentum over consecutive years rather than experiencing a one off monthly dip.
The decline also puts Nigeria at odds with the broader African trend. Total rig count across the continent rose from 42 in March to 48 in April, a period during which Nigeria's five rig loss made it a significant drag on regional upstream activity.
The gap between Nigeria and its OPEC peers is equally telling. Saudi Arabia operated 265 rigs in April, the United Arab Emirates 66, and Iraq 19, figures that illustrate how far Nigeria's exploration and development investment lags behind comparable producers within the cartel.
The development compounds an already difficult production picture. Nigeria has struggled for months to consistently meet its OPEC allocated crude output quota, and analysts warn that without a decisive scale up in drilling and field development, the country's medium to long term production growth prospects remain at risk.
Adding complexity to the picture is a significant discrepancy between OPEC's figures and those of Nigeria's own regulator. The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission puts the country's active rig count at 31 for the same period, more than double OPEC's count, maintaining that exploration and production activities remain ongoing across multiple onshore and offshore fields. Neither body has publicly accounted for the gap, and the divergence raises unresolved questions about how each institution defines and counts active rigs.