Excess Crude: Nigeria Cautions OPEC

RILWANU LUKMAN. Photo: AP.

Washington DC (THEWILL) - Nigeria’s oil minister, Rilwanu Lukman on Tuesday at the United States Energy Association in Washington Dc, told reporters he warned OPEC against flooding the market with crude as it could crash the price of the commodity.

Lukman was particularly concerned about the global economy, which he said is still recovering from a melt down. “ It would be fool hardy for us to assume that this international economy is out of the woods and start pumping oil.”

“The current market situation has to be handled with some delicacy because the world’s economy is still weak. Until its fully recovered, we have to be careful how much oil we put in the market,” he explained.

Nigeria currently produces about 1.7 million barrels per day, but could easily add another 500, 000 barrels by the end of December 2009, largely due to the relative calm in the creeks of the Niger Delta region.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will meet on December 22, 2009, to determine amongst other things whether to increase production output for its member countries.

Rilwanu Lukman was in DC to meet with World Bank officials to discuss Nigeria’s plans to turn around its corruption ridden energy sector, a move that could see the government owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiaries become self run.