Nigeria says no need for extra OPEC+ supplies amid Iran talks

Admin February 23, 2022

Feb. 23, 2022

There is no need for OPEC+ to expand its oil production increases, Nigeria’s petroleum minister said on Tuesday, even as oil nears $100 a barrel, as a potential deal between Iran and world powers will increase supplies.

“We don’t have do anything extraordinary this time because we are expecting a lot of production,” Timipre Sylva said on the sidelines of a gas exporters conference in Qatar’s capital Doha.

OPEC+ cut supplies in 2020 as the COVID pandemic reduced global demand but began marginally increasing supplies. However overall production has remained well below pre-pandemic levels boosting prices to 7-year highs of close to $100 per barrel.

“We are expecting more production if a nuclear deal with Iran works out (since) there will be production from them,” Sylva added.

Months of indirect talks between Iran and the United States to revive a 2015 nuclear deal abandoned in 2018 by then-US President Donald Trump are in their final stage, diplomats have been saying, although some still believe major issues remain to be resolved.

A deal could pave the way for OPEC member Iran to raise its oil exports further, helping to ease what many analysts see as an acute tightness in the oil market.

Brent crude traded just below $100 a barrel on Tuesday, its highest since September 2014, as the possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine heightened the risk of supply disruptions.

REUTERS