Band Arathy Somasekhar

March 8 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, HE Chief Timipre Marlin Sylva, said on Tuesday he expects the country to increase production to meet its OPEC quota by the end of the year. year.

“We are happy with the current price situation. For us, the only challenge is that we are not producing as much as we should be producing now,” Sylva said. “I spoke to the NOC (national oil company) and they convinced me that they could do something by the end of the year.”

He said there was no fallout between the group and Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. The expanded OPEC+ group includes Russia and several other smaller producers. “OPEC has no relationship with Russia ideologically, only as producers,” he said.

Nigeria is one of many countries struggling to meet its production quota under the OPEC+ supply deal due to both maintenance issues and exodus from oil companies international organizations which reduced investments in its oil sector.

Nigeria’s average daily production was 1.38 million bpd in 2021, down from 1.58 million bpd in 2020, according to data from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, making it the largest African producer in the world. group.

(Reporting by David Gaffen; Editing by Leslie Adler and Christopher Cushing)

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