Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The federal government yesterday rejected reports in a foreign news medium alleging the Nigeria was not in compliance with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)’s crude oil production cut deal struck with member states in April.
The report had suggested that survey data indicated that “Nigeria and Iraq did not live up to their commitments under the massive production cut deal that promised to take 9.7 million barrels of oil production per day out of the oversupplied market.”
But in a statement he personally signed yesterday, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva, disputed the report, insisting that Nigeria had complied substantially. He noted that full compliance will be implemented by the end of June, stating that the reported 19 per cent compliance to the output deal was not correct.
According to Sylva, while the current compliance level is 52 per cent, the figure released in the report erroneously calculated condensates as part of the expected reduction in the OPEC quota.
“Nigeria joined its other OPEC+ counterparts in April 2020 to bring into effect the agreement to cut 9.7 mbd that will ameliorate the current situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Nigeria has made concerted efforts to adhere to this commitment and will continue to do so unequivocally.
“Based on current NNPC data, Nigeria reduced its current production in May 2020 to 1.613 million barrels per day. The difference between its reference production of 1.829 with its May 2020 production figures is 216,000 barrels per day.
“This represents compliance of about 52 per cent as opposed to the 19 per cent reported by Thompson Reuters (TR)” he said.
He added that it was pertinent to note that the figures reported by TR included Agbami and Akpo condensate streams which are classified as condensates and thus excluded for quota purposes.
The minister said : “It is worthy to note that current daily crude oil production is well below the period commitment level of 1.412 million barrels per day and will translate to full compliance by end of June 2020.
“Nigeria will continue to fully comply with the agreement and look forward to improving on its compliance levels for the lifespan of this historic intervention by OPEC+”
