OPEC Endorses Nigeria’s Oil Production Cut Exemption Request

• OPEC Endorses Nigeria’s Oil Production Cut Exemption Request

The meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC members ended in Vienna on Friday with an endorsement of Nigeria’s position that the exemption granted it at the November 2016 ministerial conference and extended in May this year should be sustained until it stabilised its crude oil production.

Nigeria had argued that although its production recovery efforts had made some appreciable progress since October last year, it was not yet out of the woods.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, told the meeting that even though Nigeria hit 1.802 million barrels per day in August 2017, that was not enough justification for a call by some countries for it to be brought into the fold.

According to a statement issued by the spokesperson for the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Idang Alibi, on Friday, the minister emphasised that Nigeria, as one of the older members of OPEC, would continue to work for the good of the organisation and its member countries.

Kachikwu said Nigeria would respect whatever agreements and resolutions were collectively made by the organisation.

According to him, Nigeria will be prepared to cap its crude production when it has stabilised at 1.8 million barrels per day.

The minister noted that although Nigeria was not a member of the five-nation Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, he had gladly accepted the invitation of the co-chairs of the committee and the OPEC conference president to attend its meeting.

This, he said, was because he believed that the committee was doing a good job and needed to also clarify Nigeria’s position on its crude oil production.

The statement read in part, “The meeting noted that overall compliance by OPEC and non-OPEC participating countries with the agreement on crude oil production cut for the month of August was 116 per cent, the highest since the agreement came into effect on January 2017.

“It further noted that the objectives of the accord was steadily being achieved with the gradual drawdown of inventories by nearly 50 per cent since the agreement came into effect.”