OPEC Members Are Being Forced To Compensate For Missed Targets

Angola is set to cut 261,000 barrels per day (bpd) from its reference 2018 oil production in January as part of the OPEC+ pact, setting its production quota slightly above the current ceiling, the Angola Press Agency ANGOP reports.

Angola’s current oil production quota is set at 1.249 million bpd, as per the OPEC+ pact agreed in April. For May and June, when the deepest OPEC+ cuts were in force, Angola had to pump no more than 1.18 million bpd.

The cut of 261,000 bpd from the reference production of 1.528 million bpd gives Angola a ceiling of 1.267 million bpd for its production next month.

Angola, as well as other notorious laggards such as Iraq and Nigeria, failed to comply with its share of the cuts in the early days of the pact signed in April. It now has to compensate for that lack of compliance, for which OPEC+ agreed last week that laggards in compliance have time until March 2021 to compensate for their lack of compliance since May this year.  

In October, as per OPEC’s latest official figures in the Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR), Angola cut its production by 54,000 bpd from September to pump 1.181 million bpd. Angola’s oil output drop was the second-largest after that of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which was compensating for its overproduction in August.

Last week, OPEC+ managed to seal a compromise deal over its oil production policy early next year, presenting a united front of a unanimous decision after days of disagreements. The original plan for a 2-million-bpd increase of OPEC+ production as of January was watered down to a 500,000-bpd rise for January in a compromise agreement, largely seen as a positive outcome that avoided a break-up of the OPEC+ pact or even of OPEC. 

The total production cut for January will thus be 7.2 million bpd, compared to the current 7.7 million bpd collective cut, while the ministers decided to hold monthly meetings to decide the oil production policy for the following month.  

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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