Nigeria’s oil output short by 400,000 barrels daily

Nigeria’s has agreed to peak its oil production at 1.8 million barrels per day, with a shortfall of 400,000 barrels based on the 2.2 million output projection in the 2017 budget.

The country’s delegates at the just concluded Joint OPECNon-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, agreed to joint crude oil production cut as soon as the country attains the sustainable level of 1.8million barrels per day capacity.

The meeting, which took place yesterday was to review the June 2017 report as well as the first six months of the Declaration of Cooperation, as submitted by the Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Technical Committee ( JTC).

At the end of the meeting the committee commended Nigeria’s effort towards attaining market sustainability.

“The JMMC further welcomed the flexibility of Nigeria in this regard, which despite its commitment to recover its pre-crisis production level, voluntarily agreed to implement similar OPEC production adjustments as soon as its recovery reaches a sustainable production volume of 1.8 mb/d.”

In his opening speech, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources, and President of the OPEC Conference, Khalid A. Al-Falih, said despite the positive indicators in the market, “We must acknowledge that the market has turned bearish with several key factors driving this behaviour: reported compliance not matching export figures, increased Libyan and Nigerian production, US shale forecasts, and finally the outlook past the March 2018 expiry date of our agreement.”

The JMMC also recommended keeping the extension of the Declaration of Cooperation beyond 1Q18 as an option, should further action be required for the stabilization of the market.

The 5th meeting of the JMMC is scheduled to take place in September 2017, or earlier if deemed necessary.