Nigeria and other members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the Non-OPEC members have agreed to cut production volumes to ensure global oil market stability.

The agreement was reached on Sunday at the 35th Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) meeting of OPEC held in Vienna, Austria.

The Nigerian delegation was led by Gabriel Aduda, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, who was also confirmed OPEC governor for Nigeria at the meeting in Vienna.

OPEC and its allies have agreed to cut global oil production by 1.393 million barrels daily, reducing Nigeria’s oil production quota by 20.7 per cent.

Mr Aduda said Nigeria, Congo and Angola agreed that the highest production volumes of the last six months (November 2022 to April 2023) be used to determine their 2024 production quota.

“This is subject to review in November at the second annual meeting of the JMMC. However, the current OPEC quota would be maintained till the end of 2023,” the Nigerian official explained.

The official added, “This implies that Nigeria can ramp up its production to its current quota of 1,742 barrels per day and subsequently be capped at 10 per cent less as its quota for 2024 subject to verification by independent secondary sources.”

Mr Aduda expressed confidence that the security intervention under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu would enable the restoration of Nigeria’s production to 1,580 barrels per day of crude oil only.

He said this would be complemented by the condensate of about 400,000 barrels per day, ultimately upping Nigeria’s crude oil and condensate production to about two million barrels per day in 2024.

(NAN)