LONDON: African members of OPEC+ producer group Angola and Nigeria are aiming for higher oil output, officials told Reuters on Thursday, a day after the group was forced to postpone talks on next year’s production policy.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies such as Russia, known as OPEC+, on Wednesday delayed a ministerial meeting expected to discuss output cuts, a surprise move which sent oil prices sliding.
“We are happy, we are waiting for the meeting,” Angolan OPEC governor Estevao Pedro told Reuters. “We are fighting to increase our production,” he said, adding that investment was being made to make that happen.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman agreed to delay the meeting to Nov. 30 from Nov. 26, an OPEC+ source said on Wednesday, citing issues around other producers.
The Nov. 30 meeting, which overlaps with the start of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, will convene online, OPEC said on Thursday.
Nigeria was producing 1.7 million barrels per day of crude and condensates as of Nov. 17 and expects to hit 1.8 million bpd by the end of the year, Olufemi Soneye, chief corporate communications officer at its state oil firm NNPC, told Reuters.
Nigeria’s governor to OPEC Gabriel Tanimu Aduda told Reuters on Thursday he was not aware of any disagreements with other members of OPEC+ about his country’s production targets.
“We are not aware of any disagreements, it is more a matter of seeking alignments,” Aduda said.
Oil fell about 1.5% on Thursday as the postponement stoked expectations that the group might not deepen output cuts. Brent crude was trading above $80 a barrel, down from near $98 in late September.
Three other OPEC+ sources said the delay to the meeting was linked to African countries. OPEC+ said after its last meeting in June that the 2024 output quotas of Angola, Nigeria and Congo were conditional on reviews by outside analysts.
OPEC+ has tasked three independent consultancies- IHS, Rystad Energy and Wood Mackenzie - to verify production figures for those countries and report them at the next meeting.
The Nigerian governor said he was comfortable with the findings of the independent sources. OPEC+ sources had told Reuters the snag that negotiations hit this week was related to these findings.
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