The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies’ resolve to deepen crude oil production cuts will make Nigeria’s proposed revenue from crude oil sales for 2024 unrealistic.

At a virtual meeting on Thursday, November 30, the cartel, known as OPEC+, announced additional voluntary cuts to 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) to support the stability and balance of oil markets.

The voluntary cuts by its members are calculated from the 2024 required production level.

At the meeting, which was used to discuss 2024 output amid concerns that the market faces a potential surplus, the cartel said it would raise Nigeria’s production quota to 1.5 million bpd from 1.38 million bpd but that the 8.69 per cent increase would be subject to further consideration.

“In view of current oil market fundamentals, in accordance with the decision of the 35th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting, the completion of the assessment by the three independent sources (IHS, Wood Mackenzie and Rystad Energy) for production level that can be achieved in 2024 by Angola, Congo and Nigeria as follows: Angola at 1,110 t/bd, Congo at 277 t/bd and Nigeria at 1,500 t/bd,” OPEC+ said.

The ICIR reports that “t/bd” means ‘to be decided or to be determined’ as OPEC+ fixed its 37th meeting for June 1, 2024, in Vienna.

Pumping more than 40 per cent of the world’s oil production, the OPEC+ members agreed that Saudi Arabia extends its voluntary cut of one million bpd it has had in place since July; Russia cut its output by 500,000 bpd while other members also voluntarily reduced production, as the geo-political Israel-Hamas war had further increased tensions between many OPEC+ members and Western countries.

The cartel’s output of some 43 million bpd already reflects cuts of about five million bpd, but Nigeria and Angola have been resisting attempts to curb their production.