NAN – The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has ruled out the possibility of split in Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) over disagreement on daily oil production output by member nations.
Mr Ohi Alegbe, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Department, NNPC, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Alegbe said that the issue of split in OPEC did not arise in the organisation’s meeting last week and described the conference as a success.
He said the conference reached a consensus on output and the election of Nigeria’s Petroleum Minister, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, as first female President of the OPEC.
He added that the organisation would not just take any decision without due consultation with relevant stakeholders.
“It is assumed that before reaching any major decision on crude volumes, the conference must have consulted widely with all stakeholders, including the EU, Russia and some other crude consumption blocs,’’ he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalled that the 12-nation cartel had decided to maintain the production level of 30 million barrels per day, same as it had been producing for three years.
The decision resulted to disagreements among member nations, especially the poor ones.
There have been fears in some quarters that the disagreement among member nations on the 30 million barrels per day output could lead to split in OPEC.
OPEC had faced pressure from its poorer members, notably Venezuela, to cut output as collapsing prices slashed their precious revenues.
However, its powerful Gulf members rejected calls to turn down the taps unless they were guaranteed market share in the highly competitive arena, particularly in the U.S.
A flood of cheaper oil from U.S. shale rock has contributed to the global oversupply.
OPEC’s decision against cutting oil production, despite a global glut in supplies, had triggered collapse in crude prices and prompted a fall in trading.
The cartel, which is responsible for one-third of the world’s oil opted to stick by its output target, even after prices have plunged by 35 percent in value since June.
