Nigeria has been exempted from the latest production cut by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC.
Meeting in Vienna, Austria, OPEC ministers Wednesday agreed to cut production by the 14-member body by 1.2 million barrels per day to 32.5 million barrels per day.
Nigeria was exempted because it currently produced far below its OPEC production quota of 2.2 million barrels per day.
Saudi Arabia is to bear the biggest burden of the production cut as the country’s output was slashed by 486,000 barrels per day under the new arrangement.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Wednesday agreed its first oil output cuts since 2008, at its meeting.
The agreement was in line with an accord reached in Algiers in September. OPEC member Algeria was proposing to set a new production ceiling at 32.5 million barrels per day, down from current levels of 33.6 million.
According to Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Emmanuel Kachikwu, OPEC members were “largely convergent” on a need for a production cut. Kachikwu in Vienna said. “We’re optimistic.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Brent crude broke through $50 a barrel for the first time since October 28 as OPEC was said to be near to finalising an agreement to cut supply and stabilise global markets.
Futures jumped as much as 8.8 per cent per cent in London Wednesday. OPEC is very close to a deal that would remove 1.4 million barrels a day of collective production, a delegate to a ministerial meeting said.
An agreement would include an additional 600,000 barrels a day of cuts from non-OPEC suppliers, a delegate said.
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