Adedapo Adesanya
Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria is ready to further cut its oil production if the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies decide in December that it is a necessary step to take.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylva, who made this statement on Friday, expressed that he was not sure about the outcome of the oil market which was “unpredictable right now”
Nigeria has been one of the highest excess crude oil producers and non-compliant OPEC members in the production cut deal this year. The country’s overproduction has offset some of the cuts of fellow OPEC members at a time when the oil market continues to be oversupplied with rising US production and weakening oil demand growth.
Minister’s Comment
But last week, the Minister said, “But if we need to make deeper cuts in December, we’ll make cuts,” adding that, “We cannot allow prices to just plummet now.”
“If things are going southward, we’ll have to do some more cuts, and we are ready to make that sacrifice,” the Minister said.
According to Mr Sylva, Nigeria which is Africa’s biggest OPEC producer in Africa, has been pumping 1.8 million barrels per day of crude oil year to date.
“We had some overproduction in August, but we committed to cutting now, and we cut down in September, and we are going to fully comply from October,” he said.
Nigeria’s Oil Production
Business Post gathered that Nigeria had promised last month to reduce its oil production by 57,000 barrels per day. Nigeria and Iraq are the only members of OPEC that haven’t been complying with their share of the production cuts in recent months.
But both oil exporters pledged in September to fall within their respective caps while OPEC and its allies are trying to rebalance the oil market.
In August, Nigeria pumped 1.866 million barrels per day, up by 86,000 barrels per day from July, according to OPEC’s secondary sources that it uses to calculate official production and compliance rates.
Nigeria’s cap as part of the OPEC deal is 1.685 million barrels per day but alongside Iraq, the efforts of the oil cartel to secure compliance has been derailed.
Unfortunately, due to sanctions placed on them by the United States, Iran and Venezuela are exempted from the cuts, however, both countries are helping OPEC reduce production.
