By Bassey Udo
Nigeria’s new daily oil production quota is to increase by about 27,000 barrels effective July 2022, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has announced.
The latest oil production quotas released on Thursday at the end of the 29th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting held via video conference approved that Nigeria would produce a total of 1.799 million barrels of crude oil per day out of a combined production capacity of 43.206 million barrels by both OPEC and non-OPEC member countries.
The new output quota was reviewed from about 1.772 million barrels approved for the country out of a combined volume of 42.558 million during the 28th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting on May 5, 2022.
During the meeting held in Vienna, Austria, it was approved that the ten OPEC members would produce a total of 26.276 million barrels daily, against a total of 16.930 million barrels per day by their non-OPEC counterparts, led by Russia.
The new production figures were revised from a total of 25.864 million barrels per day approved in May for OPEC 10, against about 16.694 million barrels per day for non-OPEC members.
Amid rising crude oil prices, which stood at about $122.94 per barrels on May 31, 2022, the OPEC+ Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to maintain a stable and balanced market for both crude oil and refined petroleum products.
Consequently, in reaffirming their decision taken during the 10th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial meeting on April 12, 2020 to cut members’ production to balance and stabilize the market, the Ministers further endorsed the decision in subsequent meetings, including the 19th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting on July 18, 2021.
During the latest meeting on Thursday, the Ministers again confirmed the resolution on production adjustment plan and the monthly production adjustment mechanism approved at the 19th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting and the need to adjust upward the monthly overall production quota by 432,000 barrels per day for July 2022.
Also, the Ministers decided to advance the planned overall production adjustment for September and redistribute equally the 432,000 barrels per day production increase over the months of July and August 2022.
A statement issued at the end of the meeting indicated that July 2022 production quota would be adjusted upward by about 648, 000 barrels per day.
Details of the approved production quotas showed that
Algeria would account for 1.039 million barrels per day;
Angola (1.502 mbpd), Congo (320,000 bpd), Equatorial Guinea (125,000 bpd), Gabon (183,000 bpd), Iraq (4.580 mbpd), Kuwait (2.768 mbpd),
Nigeria (1.799 mbpd), Saudi Arabia (10.833 mbpd), United Arab Emirate (3.127 mbpd), Azerbaijan (706,000 bpd),
Bahrain (202,000 bpd), Brunei (100,000 bpd), Kazakhstan (1.680 mbpd), Malaysia (585,000 bpd), Mexico (1.753 mbpd), Oman (868,000 bpd),
Russia (10.833 mbpd), Sudan (74,000 bpd) and South Sudan (128,000 bpd).
During the meeting, the Ministers also agreed to extend the compensation period until the end of December 2022 as requested by some underperforming countries, who were required to submit their plans latest by June 17, 2022, in accordance with the resolution of the 15th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting.
The meeting also reiterated the importance of member countries continuing to adhere strictly to full conformity with the output quota agreement and the compensation mechanism.