Nigeria supports OPEC cut extension under ‘the right terms’

Nigeria supports an extension of a deal between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and other non-members to cut oil supply until the end of 2018 “as long as the right terms are on the table” regarding its own participation, its oil minister said.

He said there is growing agreement among other OPEC members to extend the deal.

“There isn’t any reason to change what is a winning formula,” oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said, noting “there is a consensus to extend. The issue will be the duration.”

Nigeria itself, however, is exempt from the deal. OPEC, along with Russia and nine other producers agreed to cut oil output by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) until March 2018 in an attempt to ease a global excess that weighed on prices.

The group will meet in Vienna later this month to discuss whether to extend that deal.

Nigeria’s output has rebounded since its exemption, granted last year after militant attacks that cut its output to close to 1 million bpd, but Kachikwu said the recovery is ongoing.

“We’ll be looking for a number that enables us to contribute... it’s in the range of 1.8 to 1.9 [million bpd], preferably closer to 1.9,” he said of the production cap.

While there have not been any significant attacks on the nation’s oil infrastructure since January, peace is on shaky ground.

Nigeria’s total output reached 2.03 million bpd in October, but the ministry said only about 1.67 million bpd of that total is crude oil. The remainder is condensates, an ultra-light oil that is exempt from its potential cap.