Nigeria got special concessions as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reached the much sought consensus to cut oil production by 1.2m b/d, effective January 2017, informed Premium Times.
A statement from the Press Director at the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Idang Alibi, Director Press, declared that Nigeria was exempted from OPEC’s production freeze plans as a result of strategic negotiations and the worrying incidences of vandalisation of the country’s petroleum installations. The minters, Ibe Kachikwu, who led Nigeria’s delegation and negotiation at the OPEC meeting, added that Nigeria was accommodated due to some of the damage on its oil and gas facilities by militant attacks in recent months, informed Vanguard.
This comes as both Iran and Libya were also offered similar concessions to the output cut agreement, while OPEC will effectively cut production by about 1.2bb/d , or about 4.5% of current production, to 32.5mb/d. The deal saw Saudi Arabia agree to take on the highest burden of cuts at 486,000b/d to its output, while efforts are on to persuade Iraq to reach a decision to reduce its output, as well as getting non-OPEC producer Russia on board for a 300,000b/d cut.
The cut, which is the first after eight previous attempts since 2008, is considered a massive boost to efforts by the group to shore up oil prices and end a record glut that has paralyzed economies.
