EMEA News
Nigeria: Expect a "Dramatic Price Movement" - Oil Output Talks Reportedly Set for March 20
A "dramatic price movement" will result from renewed talks to freeze oil output between key members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers, set to take place on March 20 in Moscow.
That is the message from Emmanuel Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources for Nigeria, who told attendees at an Abuja conference that "Both the Saudis and the Russians, everybody is coming back to the table" at that date, and that producers overall are seeking a crude price recovery in the neighbourhood of $50 per barrel.
However, a statement on Russia's energy ministry website notes that while the nation is ready and willing to resume talks, the time and date of the meeting is still being discussed.
Moreover, it is unclear whether Iran, which has rejected an output freeze in favour of regaining its market share in a post-sanction global environment, will attend.
For its part, Nigeria "will be focusing more on how we can bring in production-sharing-contracts-type elements into JV structures so that way we can begin to get them back to work," according to Kachikwu.
As optimistic as Kachikwu may be, he has not always been consistent in his viewpoints. At the time of OPEC's December 4 meeting, he told reporters that his country would ask the cartel to persuade Iran to delay its exports - and then contradicted himself two days later by stating that renewed Iranian oil exports would not exacerbate global oversupply.
