Nigeria is shifting its upstream work towards NGLs and natural gas, to better comply with its crude production quota under the OPEC+ agreement, the head of the country’s national oil company said Saturday. Mele Kyari, Nigeria National Petroleum Corp.’s group general manager, noted that OPEC quotas only apply to crude oil production, not condensate.
“You can produce condensate which is not part of the OPEC commitments,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi. “We are focusing our production to more gas-based reservoirs so that we can continue to grow our production while maintaining balance in the market.” Nigeria’s December oil production was 2.2 million b/d, he said and declined to say how much of that was crude and how much was condensate. The country was fully compliant with its quota of 1.77 million b/d for crude, he said.
“We have met our commitment by December,” Kyari said on a panel at the forum. Nigeria was currently counting production of its new Egina grade as condensate, he said. Egina crude has a gravity 27.5 API , significantly heavier than typical condensates , and a sulfur content of 0.17%, according to a source. The oil is expected to have high yields of gasoil and distillates.
S&P Global Platts’ latest survey of OPEC production estimated Nigeria’s December crude production at 1.84 million b/d. Starting this month, Nigeria’s quota drops to 1.75 million b/d under the OPEC+ coalition’s agreement to deepen its production cuts through March. Nigeria has been criticized by many of its OPEC+ counterparts for its habitual flouting of its production cap.