The Nigerian Government has defended OPEC+’s recent 2 million barrels per day oil supply cuts.
The move by OPEC+ was earlier condemned by President Joe Biden and other Western leaders who claimed that the cuts help to keep the oil prices high, thus adding to inflationary pressures.
But Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva said the cuts were proactive to ensure stability in the oil markets, according to a statement seen by Nairametrics.
What the Minister said
The Minister said OPEC+’s decision was a unanimous one taken to stabilize the price of the market for the cartel.
He emphasized that such cuts help to ensure the long-term health of the oil market to prevent larger production cuts in the future.
“It was purely to balance supply and demand and forestall degeneration of the current volatile oil market to a situation where larger production cuts will be required to balance it.
“This proactive decision was based on a thorough assessment of market conditions as OPEC plus has always been guided,” he said.
Recall that Nairametrics reported on October 5th that the OPEC+ group agreed to cut crude oil production by its members by 2 million barrels per day from November 2022.
They said: ‘’In light of the uncertainty that surrounds the global economy and oil market outlooks, and the need to enhance the long-term guidance for the oil market, and in line with the successful approach of being proactive, and preemptive, which has been consistently adopted by OPEC and Non-OPEC Participating Countries in the Declaration of Cooperation, the Participating Countries decided to:
“Adjust downward the overall production by 2 mb/d, from the August 2022 required production levels, starting November 2022 for OPEC and Non-OPEC Participating Countries as per the attached table.
In case you missed it
Nairametrics reported that Nigeria continued its dismal crude oil production output for the year due to theft as September production averaged 937,766 barrels per day (BPD). This was disclosed in the September Crude Oil production report by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.
