By Anthony Isaac
Following a meeting of OPEC and its partners (OPEC+), Nigeria’s oil production quota has been reduced to 1.412 million barrels per day, the Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva has said.
Nigeria’s production reduction is part of a wider effort by the oil producers to cut over 10mbpd in production to shore up price of oil which has fallen dramatically due to low demand following the outbreak of the Coronavirus.
Sylva in a statement on Friday said the new quota was based on Nigeria production as at October 2018 of 1.829 million barrels per day of dry crude oil.
The statement read in parts “Nigeria is participating in the pursuit of our commitment to the framework of the Declaration of Cooperation entered on 10th December 2016 and further endorsed in subsequent meetings as well as the Charter of Cooperation signed in July 2019.
“Nigeria joined OPEC+ to cut supply by up to 10 million barrels per day between May and June 2020, eight million barrels per day between July and December 2020 and six million barrels per day from January 2021 to April 2022, respectively”.
He continued: “Based on reference production of Nigeria of October 2018 of 1.829 million barrels per day of dry crude oil, Nigeria will now be producing 1.412 million barrels per day, 1.495 million barrels per day and 1.579 million barrels per day respectively for the corresponding periods in the agreement.
“This is in addition to condensate production of between 360-460 KBOPD of which are exempt from OPEC curtailment. The agreement awaits close out of ongoing engagement with Mexico to agree on its full participation”.
The Minister explained that “it is expected that this historic intervention when concluded will see crude oil prices rebound by at least $15 per barrel in the short term, thereby enhancing the prospect of exceeding Nigeria’s adjusted budget estimate that is currently rebased at $30 per barrel and crude oil production of 1.7 Million Barrels per day. The price rebound may translate to additional revenues of not less than $2.8 Billion Dollars for the Federation.
“It is therefore pleasing to note that despite the production curtailments that this historic agreement will entail, all planned industry development projects will progress as they will be delivered after the termination of the 9th OPEC/Non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting Agreement on adjustments in April 2020,” he added.
ExpressDay recalls that four days ago the Federal Government had revised the oil production projection in the 2020 Budget from 2.18 million per day to 1.7mbpd at a benchmark price of $30 per barrel.
