According to the latest OPEC report, the month of May saw the OPEC Reference Basket (ORB) fall by $5.36, or 7.8%, month on month (m-o-m), to $63.62/b.
Additionally, the ICE Brent front-month contract fell by $2.45, or 3.7%, month on month to average $64.01/b, while the NYMEX WTI front-month contract fell by $2.02, or 3.2%, to $60.94/b.
“The global economy maintained a stable growth trajectory, supported by healthy 1Q25 growth and tentative progress in US trade negotiations,” the report stated.
“The global economic growth forecasts remain unchanged at 2.9% for 2025 and 3.1% for 2026,” it added.
According to last month’s estimate, the global oil demand growth prediction for 2025 is still 1.3 mb/d, year-over-year (y-o-y). A few small revisions were made, mostly to the 1Q25 real data.
In 2025, the OECD expects oil consumption to increase by around 0.2 mb/d, whereas non-OECD demand is expected to increase by over 1.1 mb/d.
In contrast, the supply of non-DoC liquids is expected to increase by around 0.8 mb/d, year over year, in 2025, according to the same prediction made last month.
Argentina, Canada, Brazil, and the United States are anticipated to be the primary growth engines.
The report also notes that for the second half of the year, supply output in Africa and some Asian markets is projected to experience very significant declines.
However, some African countries are still churning out decent amounts of crude.
With that said, here are the African countries with the highest oil production last month in thousand barrels per day (tb/d), according to OPEC’s latest report.
Save Congo, all other African countries on the list experienced an increase in oil-production compared to last month.
Top 5 African countries that produced the most oil in May 2025
| Rank | Country | DoC crude oil production based on secondary sources, tb/d | Change between May and April |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1. |
Nigeria |
1,544 |
22 |
|
2. |
Libya |
1,302 |
36 |
|
3. |
Algeria |
921 |
9 |
|
4. |
Congo |
253 |
-6 |
|
5. |
Gabon |
233 |
12 |
