By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigerian President, Mr Muhammadu Buhari, and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mr Mohammad bin Salman, held a telephone call on Monday to review the current progress made on the crude oil reduction deal signed by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) in late April.
During yesterday’s call, both leaders, who are members of the oil cartel, reviewed the progress of the OPEC+ agreement and various aspects of cooperation to enhance the stability of the oil market.
They also discussed bilateral relations between the two countries and opportunities for their development
Nigeria, along with Iraq, Kazakhstan, and Angola, were regarded as the laggards in doing their parts to meet the historic cuts of 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) agreed in April, taking effect in May and June and extended by another month till July.
As part of commitment to make up for being a laggard, Nigeria will be making extra cuts for it in July, August and September 2020 supply in order to help the market that has been hit by demand following the restrictions placed on movement due to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to this latest agreement reached, OPEC+ will cut 9.7 million barrels per day in combined production for May, June, and July then ease these to 7.7 million barrels per day until the end of the year. From January 2021, the production cut would be further eased to 5.8 million barrels per day, to remain in effect until the end of April 2022.
There is no discussion yet if the deal will be extended to August. Discussions about this will may come up when the OPEC Joint Ministerial Managerial Committee (JMMC), which Nigeria also belongs, meets on July 15.
The Saudi crown prince also held a phone call with the president of South Africa, Mr Cyril Ramabusa, where he also discussed the bilateral relations between the two countries and opportunities for developing them.
They also discussed a number of issues of common concern, the Saudi state media reported.