Nigeria’s commitment to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) production quotas was reaffirmed by Heineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources. At a federal government meeting on June 2, 2023, OPEC raised Nigeria’s production target to 1.5 million barrels of crude oil per day (bpd) for 2024, which the organization expects Nigeria to maintain until December 2025.
Despite this target, Nigeria has struggled to meet its quota, averaging 1.4 million bpd, excluding condensate, throughout the year. Following OPEC’s 56th Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) meeting, Lokpobiri reiterated Nigeria’s commitment to OPEC’s guidelines while emphasizing the need to balance responsible production with the country’s economic goals. He stated, “While we continue to ramp up production in line with our national interests, we are doing so within the framework of OPEC’s guidelines, as we remain committed to balancing responsible production with our economic goals and continue to meet our obligations.”
In related developments, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) announced plans to allocate 272,500 barrels of crude oil per day for debt repayment through various crude-for-loan agreements, amounting to a total of $8.86 billion. This translates to approximately 8.17 million barrels of crude oil needed each month to satisfy these financial commitments.
The allocation details emerged from reports by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and NNPCL’s financial statement. Key projects associated with these loan agreements include Project Panther, Project Bison, Project Eagle Export Funding, Project Yield, and Project Gazelle. As of now, NNPCL has repaid $2.61 billion of its total loan portfolio, leaving a balance of $6.25 billion. Out of the total $8.86 billion credit facility, only $6.97 billion has been disbursed across seven crude-for-loan deals.