Nigeria, which has pumped above its OPEC quota for months to the ire of other members, brought down its crude oil production in November, to fully comply with its cap, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva has said.OPEC earlier this summer quietly reset Nigeria’s quota to 1.77 million barrels daily (mbd), up from 1.69mbd previously, which it had not met since March.
“Nigeria’s compliance level has witnessed tremendous progress, month by month, since last August, resulting in 100% compliance in November 2019,” the Ministry said in a statement.The country has been under pressure by Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members to improve its compliance to help speed the bloc’s market rebalancing efforts. OPEC and 10 non-OPEC allies are in the midst of a 1.2mbd production cut agreement.
Sylva held a teleconference with Saudi counterpart, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, who also co-chairs the OPEC/non-OPEC monitoring committee tasked with assessing member compliance with their agreed cuts, the Ministry said.Sylva, who also serves on the committee, had pledged in September that his country would meet its commitment within three months.
Nigeria in October, self-reported to OPEC a production figure of 1.78 mbd, though the six independent secondary sources, including S&P Global Platts, used by OPEC to track member output estimated it at 1.81mbd.In June, the country self-reported its highest output in years, at 1.96mbd, as production from its new Egina field ramped up.
Nigerian officials have previously said Egina barrels should be counted not as crude but as condensate, which is not subject to OPEC limits.The OPEC+ coalition is scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday, in Vienna, Austria, to review its production cut agreement, which runs through March.
