Nigeria last week submitted a request to the OPEC secretariat for a reevaluation of its production quota under the OPEC+ supply cut deal, OPEC+ sources said. The sources said the request had been distributed to 23 OPEC+ countries for consideration ahead of the alliance’s full ministerial meetings at the end of this month. However, the proposal may be discussed at technical meetings on November 16-17.
Nigeria’s request focuses on the classification of oil from the country’s Agbami field. Nigeria’s Department of Petroleum Resources categorizes the output from the Agbami field as condensate. However, some secondary sources describe Agbami grade as crude. Chevron, a partner of state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, also defines at its website that the grade is light, sweet crude oil. Agbami output stood at around 140,000 bpd over the last four months.
Nigeria said that categorizing Agbami grade as crude had inflated its production figure and poor track record on compliance with the OPEC+ deal. However, it is worth noting that Nigeria’s October 2018 production baseline also includes output from Agbami. Hence, reevaluation of Nigeria’s quotas might also require a revision in its baseline figure.
