Nigeria cuts 1.484 barrels off oil production

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude exporter, slashed a total of 1.484 million barrels of crude in the 28 days of February, a Federal Government statement says.

It maintained that this production slash was achieved through 53,000 barrels cut daily in compliance with quota slammed on the country by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Minister of State for Petroleum in Nigeria, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, who said this in an interview, opined that the country’s compliance with the OPEC production cut deal last February helped to stabilise global oil prices.

“We’re basically complying effective from February with the country’s pledged 53,000 barrel-a-day reduction. The price fluctuations mean OPEC needs to be a bit more together, a bit more determined to try to defend the market,” he said.

Even with these figures, Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, S&P Global Platts’ survey showed, still pumped more crude oil last February than the quota given by OPEC.

OPEC and 10 non-OPEC countries agreed last December to cut oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day effective from January for an initial period of six months to help balance the market and support prices.

Nigeria, which was exempted from the previous production cuts deal, agreed to a quota under the current accord. With a reference level of 1.738 million bpd, the country was given a new quota of 1.685 million bpd.

But Nigeria pumped 1.88 million bpd in February, 190,000 bpd above its cap, S&P Global Platts’ survey of industry officials, analysts and shipping data found.

The country has started production from a new deepwater field, Egina, though the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, has suggested that he might seek to have those barrels classified by OPEC as condensates, which is not subject to the quotas.

Nigeria also considers Agbami grade as a condensate, while S&P Global Platts and some other secondary sources used by OPEC to monitor production classify it as crude.

SOURCE: newtelegraphng.com