Many African countries are heavily dependent on oil production

Oil production plays an important role in the economy of many African countries. The chart shows oil rents (the value of crude oil production minus production costs) as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) for the nine African nations most reliant on it.

Libya ranks first, with oil rents equivalent to 56% of its GDP in 2021, followed by Congo at 34% and Angola at 28%. Despite being Africa’s largest oil producer, Nigeria’s oil rents are just 6% the size of its GDP.

Despite this, these countries’ oil production is relatively modest on a global scale. In 2021, their combined output was less than half of what the United States, the world’s top producer, extracted.