Nigeria petitions OPEC+ for higher oil quota despite production struggles

Nigeria’s quota, which covers only crude oil and not condensate, is 1.614 million b/d for September and is scheduled to rise by roughly 17,000 b/d each month, in line with the OPEC+ alliance’s plans to gradually ease back on production cuts implemented in the pandemic.

Sylva said his country’s full production capacity is closer to 2.2 million b/d, which should be reflected in a revised quota, even though it has struggled to produce at its current allocation.

Nigeria self-reported crude output of 1.27 million b/d in August, down from 1.44 million b/d in July.

“We’ve just put a request on the table, and we expect that to be looked at,” Sylva told reporters on the sidelines of the Gastech 2021 conference in Dubai. “We have capacity for more production than we are producing right now. Unfortunately, we are constrained by the quota.”

OPEC and its allies are next scheduled to meet October 4. The current OPEC+ agreement calls for the group to collectively raise output by 400,000 b/d each month through the end of 2022, with a review of the pact scheduled in December 2021.