Nigeria: Production Cuts – Country Threatens to Ignore Opec

The Federal Government yesterday threatened that Nigeria may stop further cuts in crude oil production as directed by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) if other member countries within the cartel fail to obey the directives.

OPEC, stung by what it called “a dramatic collapse” in crude oil prices, had announced last month after its 150th meeting in Vienna, Austria, that it would reduce output by 1.5 million barrels a day, deeper than expected, and suggested that more production cuts were coming as the global economic slowdown undermined oil demand.
A number of member states of OPEC have announced cuts in crude oil production over the past few weeks.

The announcement was made after an unusually brief emergency meeting of member states on October 24th. The cut was predicted to be the deepest since 2003, but the meeting failed to provide the price cushion that OPEC members had been hoping for.

Fielding questions from State House Correspondents before the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, the Minister of State Energy (Petroleum), Mr. Odein Ajumogobia (SAN), warned that not until all the member countries comply with OPEC directive for an earlier cut, Nigeria would not carry out any further production cut of daily crude production.

AllAfrica