By Adedapo Adesanya
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has noted that Nigeria is currently pumping 534,000 barrels per day below its quota as oil production averaged 1.238 million barrels per day in June.
This is 30 per cent below its approved quota of 1.772 million barrels per day.
This is according to secondary sources used by OPEC to track production in its Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR).
According to the report, Nigeria remains the largest laggard out of the 13 countries that make up OPEC since Iran, Libya, and Venezuela are exempt from the production pact.
All 13 OPEC members produced 28.716 million barrels per day in June, up by 234,000 barrels per day from May.
The 10 OPEC producers in the alliance that constitute OPEC+ pumped 24.8 million barrels per day of crude oil in June, 1 million barrels per day below its target.
Top OPEC producer, Saudi Arabia, naturally raised its crude oil production by the most in June compared to May, adding 159,000 barrels per day to reach 10.6 million barrels per day while the United Arab Emirates produced 3.083 million barrels per day from 3.075 million barrels per day.
Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest oil producer, was 75,000 barrels per day below its target, according to OPEC’s secondary sources.
Global oil demand is expected to slow down from 3.36 million barrels per day of growth this year to a growth of 2.7 million barrels per day in 2023.
Solid economic growth in major consuming countries, improved geopolitical developments, and containment of COVID outbreaks in China is set to support global oil demand in 2023.
OPEC assumes that the global economy will grow in 2023 and that COVID, the war in Ukraine, or monetary policy tightening will not impact economic growth “to a major degree.”
OPEC’s estimates of global oil demand also assume that major economies revert back towards growth.
“Nevertheless, uncertainty to the forecast remain to the downside, with much depending on the course of the pandemic and related measures, global financial tightening in the light of growing inflation, and the resolution of the ongoing geopolitical issues in Eastern Europe,” OPEC said.
