OPEC: Nigeria Rallies African Producers, Gets Sudan’s Pledge on Cut

Ahead of the next meeting of the ministers of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Nigeria has begun to rally African countries who are members of OPEC, in its bid to ensure the continent plays by the rules in the production limitation agreement reached by the cartel and its allies led by the Russian Federation.

The country according to a statement from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), also wants to ensure that the continent benefits maximally from hydrocarbon deposits locked in its shelves.

Signed by the Acting Group General Manager, Public Affairs of the NNPC, Mr. Samson Makoji, the statement noted that the move was strategic, and spearheaded by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva, who traveled to Angola, Gabon and South Sudan to get their supports on this.

It explained that Sylva as the President of the African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO), met African oil producing nations that are also signatories to OPEC’s Declaration of Cooperation (DoC) agreement to discuss compliance ahead of the next Joint Ministerial Meeting Committee (JMMC) of OPEC and non-OPEC countries in Vienna, Austria in December.

He stated that as a member of international energy groups such as the OPEC and APPO, Nigeria needed to further deepen its collaboration with fellow African nation to grow the continent’s oil industry.

Sylva, was also accompanied by the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari and Nigeria’s OPEC Governor, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim.

He explained that African oil producers needed to work together to judiciously utilise their abundant hydrocarbon resources for the benefit of their respective citizens.

After the meeting, the Gabonese Minister of Oil, Gas and Hydrocarbons, Mr. Noel Mboumba said in Libreville that the meeting was “very fruitful”, and that both countries had reached meaningful conclusions that would benefit their countries’ oil industry.

Sylva equally said: “We believe that we can work together, which