Nigeria’s daily oil production hits 1.57m barrels

Nigeria and several other members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries exceeded their oil production quotas in March, according to S&P Global Platts.

Nigeria, which had also recently improved its compliance, saw a steady rise in its March exports.

Nigeria produced 1.57 million barrels per day last month, a 30,000 bpd rise from February, and 70,000 bpd above its quota.

Crude oil production from OPEC and its allies rose by 450,000 bpd in March, the latest S&P Global Platts survey found, as Russia and Iraq pumped well above their agreed caps, while quota-exempt members Iran and Libya also boosted output. In Libya’s case, its production hit an almost eight-year high.

Iraqi compliance fell to 88 per cent in March, as it produced 3.95 million bpd, an increase of 60,000 bpd from the previous month.

Despite a fall in exports, its crude inventories grew, survey panelists said. The March figure is almost 90,000 bpd above its OPEC+ production quota of 3.857 million bpd.

OPEC’s 13 members pumped 25.20 million bpd in March, up 340,000 bpd from February, while their nine non-OPEC partners, led by Russia, produced 13.08 million bpd, a rise of 110,000 bpd, the survey found.

With the production gains, OPEC+ compliance with its quotas slipped to 111 per cent in March, compared with 113.5 per cent in February, juiced by Saudi Arabia voluntarily cutting an additional 1 million bpd since January.