EMEA News
Nigeria Recovery Leads OPEC to June Oil Production Gains
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reports an extra crude production of 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) in June, thanks to gains made by one of its more trouble-ridden members: Nigeria.
Data from Bloomberg indicates the West African nation pumped an average of 1.53 million bpd last month, an increase of 90,000 bpd from May, thanks to a reported cease-fire with militants allowing for the reparation of pipelines in the Niger River Delta.
Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources for Nigeria, last month told the press that while recent militant attacks reduced oil production from 2.2 million to 1.3 million bpd, output in late June was between 1.8 million and 1.9 million bpd – and that if repairs to a pipeline are completed, July's crude output will rise to 2.2 million bpd.
It's unclear, however, if this lofty goal can be met, as the Niger Delta Avengers militant group over the weekend claimed responsibility for five more attacks on oil installations in the Delta, including Chevron Corp.'s oil wells 7 and 8 and three trunk lines of Nigerian Petroleum Development Corp.
Still, Nigeria's contribution helped offset reductions posted by other OPEC nations for June, most notably that of Iraq, whose production dropped 70,000 bpd to 4.3 million bpd.
A showing of 3.5 million bpd in June for Iran ended that country's five-month run of output gains following the lifting of international sanctions.
Both Saudi Arabia and Libya reported June output gains, of 70,000 and 40,000 bpd respectively.
Even though an extra 240,000 bpd is nothing to sneeze at, it falls well short of the mark the International Energy Agency says OPEC must produce over the coming year to accommodate 2017 consumption rates: the agency last month stated that it will "have to pump an extra 650,000 barrels a day over the year" – which means finding solutions to the militant attacks, political strife, and economic chaos plaguing its member countries.
