Nigeria Secures Second Exclusion from OPEC Output Freeze

Nigeria again got members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its other non-producers allies led by the Russian Federation, to exempt it from limiting the volume of oil it can produce from its oil fields within the extended production freeze agreement they reached at their second meeting in Austria, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has disclosed.

This is just as the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) applauded the passage of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) by the Senate, and thus asked members of the House of Representatives to find similar courage employed by the senators, to accelerate the passage of its own version of the bill.

Kachikwu, stated that the country and Libya, were exempted from the output freeze despite speculations they would be made to participate in the extended agreement.

He however noted the country was not opposed to joining the agreement if its production levels rose to levels expected to make her participate.

A statement from the Director of Press in the ministry of petroleum resources, Mr. Idang Alibi, in Abuja explained that Kachikwu said “between the six to nine months’ extended window, all things being equal, Nigeria should get to an optimal oil production figures that will allow her participate in any needed production cuts.”

He added: “Nigeria is not averse to production cuts as every responsible nation needs to make sacrifices to help price stability on a global basis.” Kachikwu explained in the statement that the Nigerian oil industry under his guidance was on course to overhauling its operations and ramping up crude oil production.

He said: “The second meeting of the OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers ended on Thursday with a resolution to extend the agreement reached at their first meeting in December 2016 to cut global crude oil production in order to rebalance the oil market.