The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies known as OPEC+ have agreed to stick to last year’s plan to gradually release just over 400, 000 barrels per day of oil into the market, leaving the deal unchanged.
As predicted earlier, the oil producers’ group, like in the previous months, said it was boosting crude oil production next month by 432,000 bpd during a meeting attended by members of the organisation.
The meeting also saw the international oil cartel increase Nigeria’s production allocation for June to 1.772 million bpd, even though the country had been underperforming for over a year and was barely able to drill 1.4 million bpd.
The country’s inability to raise its production therefore means that it’s not able to benefit from high oil prices, which temporarily exceeded $110 on Thursday.
An OPEC production schedule allocating next month’s oil production ration showed Nigeria’s share of global crude drilling will rise by 19,000 bpd for the month, with OPEC hiking it from 1.753 million bpd in May to 1.772 million bpd in June.
Aside Nigeria, which received the highest share among African oil-producing nations, Angola was allocated 1.480 million bpd, coming second on the African continent, while Algeria will produce 1.03 million bpd and Congo 315, 000 bpd.
In other climes, Saudi Arabia and Russia, OPEC+ biggest producers got approval to drill 10.663 million bpd each next month, meaning that while the OPEC 10, excluding Libya, Venezuela and Iran, which are exempted, are to produce 25.864 million bpd, non-OPEC members will drill 16.694 million bpd, to hit 42.558 million bpd for the month.
The decision was taken after a very short virtual meeting, the third since one of the key members of the alliance, Russia, invaded Ukraine.
Although OPEC has been under severe pressure from the United States and its allies to ramp up production as energy prices continue to skyrocket, however, this month’s decision could be justified due to slowing oil demand in China and a chance that crude losses from Russian supply could pile up.
A short statement after the meeting, stated that following the conclusion of the 28th OPEC and non-OPEC ministerial meeting, it was noted that continuing oil market fundamentals and the consensus on the outlook pointed to a balanced market.
