Buhari demands better deal from OPEC for Nigeria

President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to consider the burden of Nigeria with a large number of poor people when sharing oil production cuts.

He also described the decision of the African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation (APPO) to site the headquarters of the African Energy Investment Corporation in Abuja as a welcome development.

The President, while hosting the Secretary General of the APPO, Mr Omar Farouk, a Nigerian, at the State House, Abuja, on Thursday, demanded a better deal from OPEC.

Buhari, in a statement by presidential spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, also spoke on challenges confronting Nigeria with its large population and huge infrastructure deficit.

He urged the OPEC to put into consideration the burden of Nigeria with “200 million poor people with severe deficit in infrastructure when sharing oil production cuts.”

Nigeria had earlier called on OPEC to reconsider its production quotas under the crude output cut agreement reached by the cartel and its allies.

The country had submitted its request to OPEC for consideration ahead of full ministerial meetings scheduled for November 30 and December 1.

The request was said to have been based on the classification of oil from the Chevron’s Agbami field, which produced around 140,000 barrels per day, as condensates

Condensates are not considered as crude oil in OPEC’s production cuts agreement.

OPEC and other non-OPEC countries led by Russia, had in May agreed to extend their output cut of 9.7 million barrels per day.

Nigeria had implemented only about 52 per cent of the designated output cut in May when it pumped 1.613 million barrels per day.

 

According to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr, Timipreye Sylva, the difference between its reference production of 1.829 million barrels per day with its May 2020 production figures was 216,000 barrels per day.

To comply fully, Nigeria needed to produce 1.412 million barrels per day but condensates, which were about 400,000 barrels per day, would not be included.

With these condensates, total daily production benchmark proposed by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in the 2021 spending estimates is 1.86m barrels per day.