Nigeria and other 11 oil-exporting nations have disregarded their oil quotas, OPEC stated on Wednesday, baring them from further oversupplying the global market.
OPEC rose from its 156th Ordinary meeting in Vienna, admitting that its members, Nigeria inclusive, have over supplied the market with more than 2 million barrels per day.
Nigeria' oil production quota is 1.78 million barrels per day and the Minister of Petroleum Resources, former Dr. Rilwanu Lukman, who was at the meeting, commended OPEC, "for stabilising the price of crude oil at the international market."
He added that this new stand would protect member countries from undue exploitation by the international oil companies.
A delegate at the meeting in Vienna of the 12-nation said the group agreed to keep production targets unchanged while members were asked to curb overproduction, estimated at nearly two million barrels a day.
Fielding questions from the OPEC News Crew in Vienna, Lukman stated that the 50-year old organisation has played a prominent role in ensuring stability of the international crude oil market noting that it has weathered the storm so far in spite of efforts to frustrate it.
"Walking the OPEC memory lane, the body's greatest achievement in its 50 years of operation is survival, despite all the odds and influences to bring it down. The second achievement is the way it has been able to achieve its goals in the last 50 years of its existence and how the organization has also been able to check-mate the international oil companies (IOCs)," Lukman observed.
He said that notwithstanding the pressure from the outside to frustrate the so-called "cartel" as some interest groups would rather call the organisation, OPEC had survived this long and remained resolute in projecting its policies and programmes.
Lukman maintained that OPEC had always ensured that citizens of member-states received a fair deal from the development and production of their hydrocarbon resources by these IOCs.
He also reposed his confidence on the founding fathers of OPEC, saying they have shown sufficient commitment and have been implementing the OPEC mandate faithfully, especially in moderating and stabilising the crude price.
Dr. Lukman said that at some critical times lately, the OPEC conference had intervened in the global oil market to save what could have resulted in catastrophe as crude prices galloped.
The minister said the moderating influence of the OPEC conference had also built some market confidence and sustained investments in oil and gas development in member-states adding that oil consumers have become more receptive about OPEC because they have come to understand its activities better.
OPEC was founded in September 1960 and is billed to celebrate its golden jubilee this year. One major milestone to mark the event is Wednesday's inauguration of the New OPEC Secretariat, built and handed over to the organisation by the Austrian government
No comments:
Post a Comment