Relying on the advantages currently enjoyed based on restive scenarios in their oil production regions, Libya and Nigeria; the only two cut exempt members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are working on a template to raise output next year.
The idea is coming barley two weeks after the decision by OPEC to extend oil production cuts.
While several ministers at the November 30 meeting of OPEC had suggested the two nations join the output-curbing deal, both are working to add to their peak production from this year.
Analysts traced Nigeria’s plan to seek output increase to the planned resumption of exploration activities at the highly expected Total Upstream’s Egina FPSO whose construction was recently completed in Korea by Samsung Heavy Industries Group.
Egina field offshore Nigeria is expected to drive about 10 per cent jump to Nigeria’s production.
Statistics show that the field will have a capacity of 200,000 barrels per day and launch in the fourth quarter of 2018, counterbalancing production constrained by ageing pipelines, perpetual theft and sabotage.
In Libya recently, the head of Libya’s UN-backed government met the head of Libya’s National Oil Corp (NOC) and the governor of Tripoli’s central bank to discuss how the corporation could get more cash to raise oil output next year.
The NOC received a quarter of its requested budget in 2017, hampering efforts to sustain oil output near 1 million bpd.
