At Last, Nigeria Meets, Surpass OPEC Quota

Oil and gas industry globally is deep and surreal, full of intrigues and dangerous bends so much that even the most courageous turns blind eye to happenings in that sector to have peace of mind. However, as has been severally canvassed, individual capacity and sagacity still determine how successful a man can be in and out of office.

This truism has manifested under the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration where what appeared as an impossibility even among those with military will has been achieved without a whimper. To doubting Thomases, a simple question is apt here: when last did Nigeria meet its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting countries (OPEC) quota? Why have we not been meeting the quota even when our revenue which has been dwindling depends on it?

An attempt at answering those questions will lead to a glaring answer… a thieving cartel has been cornering the commonwealth of the country and living large while the nation reeled in debt and lack of development. It is common knowledge as some investors in the oil and gas sector have severally lamented, that the cabals in the sector had a worse strangle hold on it than meets the eyes. Coming from such people who are big players in the industry is a testament that there is no frivolity in their assertions.

In the last days of President Muhammadu Buhari, some marginal oil field owners had lamented that between their fields and the export points, they lose more than 80 per cent of their volumes and for a capital intensive business like oil exploration, operators were going into bad debts because what was left of their supplies at export terminals could hardly cover the cost of using existing facilities to export their products.

Then came President Tinubu who one of his disciples, Raji Fashola (SAN) last week explained that one of the factors going for the President was that of his natural mien which lulls people into underrating him and before you know it, he would have gone far as an advantage; so has he also dealt with the cabal which result we have now exported to the world.

With a population of over 200 million and an output of 1.5 million barrels at 87 dollars per barrel would still leave most of the population with less than living income and therefore with lower standard of living than has been credited to the country. However, with the volume of fossil deposits and the global campaign for cleaner energy which is de-emphasising on petroleum products which allegedly impact negatively on global warming, it therefore becomes imperative and behooves of Nigeria to expedite action and exploit the deposits before it becomes overtaken by global campaigns and the new world order that would leave them unutilised.

It could be recalled that it was consistent inability of the country to meet its OPEC given quota that led to the reduction of the quota from 1.8 million barrels a day to the present 1.5 million which for several years were not met. This was with its attendant loss of revenue largely due to sabotage of trunk lines, illegal oil bunkering and outright stealing of crude oil as well as community-based disputes that lead to several force majore and stoppage of either production or lifting of extracted products.

One unfortunate revelation was the involvement of those vested with the duty to secure and stop crude stealing in the theft with accusing fingers being pointed at highly placed and influential people whose mention might shake the peace of the nation. That led to the scheme to stop it becoming a game of the cobweb which catches smaller insects and lets the big ones pass. However, last December, the tide had changed and government informed the people that it had hit target but was not believed by many.

A glance at how it was achieved shows the determination and consistency of the President Tinubu regime in focusing efforts at solving the issue which had attained international dimension with vessels switching off their gadgets that will enable locating them, then sneak into the Niger Delta and load the country’s crude oil so that it was said that the illegal bunkering of crude oil had become larger than the Nigerian economy.

Pipes were attached to trunk lines to siphon crude and in some instances, cover kilometers to the sea where platforms were built or either abandoned ones used to steal crude oil. The sophistication showed that it is only the super-rich and influential that can dabble into the illegal trade, a reason it has been hard to check. So tackling it had to come with an uncommon will and undiluted drive for transparency. Those are what President Tinubu calmly as is wont of him, tackled and solved.

There are several imports apart from increased revenue to drive programmes and development. The revenue of the country and foreign reserve has swelled enabling the battered economy to begin to regain strength needed for the servicing of debt and building of needed infrastructure. It also stopped Nigeria from being the butt of jokes in committee of nations where the issue had made the country look incapable of protecting its resources.

Disputes in the communities which led to stoppage of operations were solved, illegal siphoning by pipeline and vessels have been blocked while those who kept tardy records on loading and export were checked and before you know it, sanity returned to the sector and we are here heading for 2 million barrel target which is to break records in oil production for the country. Increased output in a nearly mono cultural economy means more revenue and accountability which can only come from integrity of leadership.

After the reduction of the quota in 2023 to 1.5 million barrels a day, the country was still unable to meet that. However, in November 2024, the country had ramped up its game and fell short of the target when it announced a 1.485 barrel per day output; which was like 99 per cent of the given output excluding condensates. By January this year it had slid back to 1.42 barrels a day, further dropping in subsequent months.

However, with grim determination and unyielding pressure, by December of last year, it had added 40,000 barrels a day to the output, recording 1.51 million barrels a day, thereby breaking the jinx and the output has since maintained the upward swing, a pointer that the hope of Nigeria using its God given resources to attend to its numerous problems have been renewed.

That means more money for the states, local governments and the grassroots with the larger picture being that in education, health, infrastructure and other programmes, more funding will follow, all thanks to President Ahmed Bola Tinubu.