The federal government yesterday pledged its renewed commitment to full compliance with the country’s crude oil production quota, which it pegged at 1.554 million barrels per day in June.
Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva, said during a briefing in Abuja to mark the country’s 50th anniversary as a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), that rationing production was the right thing to do at the moment.
The minister stated that apportioning quotas did not hurt the country’s production, adding that if not because of the cartel’s intervention, the price of crude oil would still fall below.
Sylva said the 1.554 million barrels per day which was allocated to Nigeria for June, excluded condensates, stressing that as of today Nigeria has fully complied without exceeding the total allocated to the country since the OPEC member countries agreed to cut production. According to him, although there has been a stalemate in the OPEC discussions which has now been postponed indefinitely, there is no crack in the carte. He stated that it is the way things work in OPEC wherein every member has to agree on every issue before it can be resolved.
