As against the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva’s claim in Saudi Arabia that Nigeria was compliant with the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Country’s (OPEC) increased production output for the country, Reuter’s fossil fuel survey for October revealed a different fact.
The report did not give the exact figures pumped out by Nigeria for the month but said Iraq produced above its limit as well.
“Nigeria, which has consistently been pumping more than its OPEC target, continued to do so in October, the survey found. Nigeria’s rate of compliance improved because the country received a higher target under the deal, details of which became public earlier this month,” the report said.
This would not come as good news to the Saudis, who insisted that Nigeria, the second-largest producer in the block, Iraq, meet a 100 percent compliance rate with the production limitations given to them.
Sylva told Bloomberg in an interview in Riyadh earlier in the month that Saudi Arabia was ready to deepen cuts ahead of a December meeting by OPEC and its Russian-led coalition.
Sylva also said Nigeria was already meeting its new target.
Nigeria was given a production ceiling of about 1.685 million barrels per day, it was increased to 1.774 million barrels per day in October.
On the other hand, the chief power broker in the cartel, the Saudis, were able to increase production by 850,000 barrels per day, the survey found.
This came about as the country recovered from a September 14 attack on two of its oil facilities. The monthly study collects data from shipments and sources from a range of oil companies including the OPEC cartel pinned Saudis output in October at 9.90 million barrels per day.
This is still 400,000 barrels per day less than its own limitation.
The output released by Saudi is said to have offset drops in Ecuador, where protests have led to the closure of up to 20 oil fields.
The report also saw slight increases in Venezuela and the UAE. Iran, Libya and Venezuela are exempt from the quota restriction deal due to diverse political and economic challenges.
Overall, the cartel produced 29.59 million barrels per day in October – 690,000 more than the eight-year-low output in September.
The compliance ratio reached by member countries combined reduced from 223 percent to 140 percent, findings showed.
