https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Is-Nigeria-Breaking-Its-Promise-To-OPEC16524.html
As OPEC allies push to restrict oil output in an international
attempt to bolster crude prices, Nigerian producers are heading in the
opposite direction, aspiring to increase output by 250,000 more barrels a
day to reach their overall goal of 2.5 million per day by 2020.
Look no further than Shoreline Group, Nigeria’s third-largest
independent oil producer, which intends to double their output by the
end of this year alone.
Ironically, this is all happening at the
same time that the Nigerian government has pledged to participate in a
global pact lead by Saudi Arabia and Russia to restrict oil supply. This
month the government made an official pledge to keep output under 1.8
million barrels a day in 2018. Meanwhile, as Nigerian oil minister
Emmanuel Kachikwu makes his lofty promises to OPEC, the nation’s crude
output is at its highest level in more than two years.
In
January, Nigeria produced an average of 1.93 million barrels per day,
well above the promised 1.8 million. On top of this figure, the nation
is set to start up production in a new large-scale oil field by the end
of the year, their first in half a decade. The new offshore Egina oil field
will has a production capacity of 200,000 bpd. Clearly, Nigerian
producers show no sign of heeding their own oil minister’s calls.
While
Nigerian government officials say one thing and independent producers
are doing the opposite, the rest of the oil-producing world is looking
nervously on, hoping that other countries won’t begin to follow
Nigeria’s lead and ramp up their own production, causing the tenuous
OPEC deal to fall apart.
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