Nigeria, Others Cut Oil Output To 30-year Low
Nigeria and other members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries slashed their combined crude output in June to a three-decade low, according to an S&P Global Platts survey.
The 13-member group pumped 22.31 million barrels per day, its lowest collective output since September 1990 when the launch of the first Gulf War nearly wiped out crude oil production in Iraq and Kuwait, the survey found.
OPEC and its allies, including Russia, have continued their campaign to tighten the oil market in its emergence from the depths of the coronavirus crisis.
The alliance, known as OPEC+, delivered 106 per cent of its committed production cuts, according to Platts calculations, a rise from May’s 85 per cent.
The combined output of the 20 OPEC and non-OPEC countries with quotas under the deal was 10.32 million bpd below their late 2018 reference levels, meaning the coalition took more than 10 per cent of pre-pandemic oil supply off the market.
The drastic cuts demonstrate how urgently OPEC+ members, who depend greatly on oil revenues to fund their budgets, are striving to prevent another collapse in prices.
But as the global economy takes tentative steps to recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, driving increases in oil demand, some delegates have said they are expecting an easing of the quotas in August as scheduled, according to S&P Global Platts.
The 9.7 million bpd production cut accord runs through July, after which the cuts roll back to 7.7 million bpd. A nine-country Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and Russia, the coalition’s two biggest members, is scheduled to meet online July 15 to review market conditions.
OPEC’s core Gulf members led the way on compliance in June, making additional voluntary cuts, while Iraq and Nigeria made significant progress toward complying with their quotas, the survey found.
Saudi Arabia took its production down to 7.58 million bpd, according to the survey, its lowest since June 2002, as the OPEC kingpin mostly made good on its pledge to hold output to 1 million bpd below its 8.49 million bpd quota in June. The kingdom and its Gulf allies the UAE and Kuwait are not expected to maintain those extra cuts in July.
Russia, which has an identical 8.49 million bpd quota, pumped just above that, at 8.50 million bpd, the survey found.
Iraq, which has been the target of ire by its OPEC+ counterparts for its historic non-compliance, made a big reduction in its output to 3.70 million bpd, a nearly five-year low.
While that remains above its quota of 3.59 million bpd, the country has pledged to make up for its overproduction later this summer with extra cuts.
Nigeria has made the same pledge, with its June production averaging 1.58 million bpd, above its cap of 1.41 million bpd, according to the survey.
Several other African countries also breached their quotas and likely will face pressure at the JMMC meeting to improve their performance.
The deal exempts Iran, Venezuela and Libya from the cuts.
Heavily sanctioned Iran slumped to 2.00 million bpd, while Venezuela, also under stringent US sanctions, saw its production collapse to 280,000 bpd, just over half of its May output, as its operations with international joint venture partners nearly ground to a halt.
Libya saw a slight uptick to 100,000 bpd, the survey found, but remained extremely volatile because of civil conflict.
Platts is one of six secondary sources used by the OPEC+ coalition to track output. It has compiled OPEC member production data since 1988 and has now begun to survey production by the other participants in the OPEC+ agreement.
The Platts figures are compiled by surveying oil industry officials, traders, and analysts, as well as reviewing proprietary shipping, satellite and inventory data.
On June 6, OPEC and its allies agreed to continue their current production cuts through July, except for Mexico, whose participation will end after June. The cuts are scheduled to taper to 7.7 million bpd from August to December, and then down to 5.8 million bpd from 2021 through April 2022.
The cuts are determined from an October 2018 baseline production level, except for Saudi Arabia and Russia, who were given baselines of 11 million bpd.
