The Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, yesterday said Nigeria was part of the decision by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut 2 million barrels of crude oil production for November.
According to a statement by his spokesman Horatius Egua on Tuesday, the minister said this was to stabilize the market and not for any ulterior motives.
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The statement read: “The decision taken by the OPEC+ during our meeting on 5th October, 2022 to voluntarily adjust crude oil production downward by two million barrels per day was unanimous. It was taken for the exclusive purpose of ensuring the long-term stability of the oil market.
“It was purely to balance supply and demand, and forestall a 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 stated further.
“Nigeria currently produces about 1.2m bpd which is far from the 1.8m bpd it was assigned to produce in September before dropping to about 1.7m bpd in October. The country is battling oil theft with officials saying over 200,000 bpd of crude oil is stolen daily. So far, illegal connection points have been discovered in an ongoing massive onslaught against oil thieves.”
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