Nigeria has boosted global oil supplies by 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) through higher output from crude streams, including Qua Iboe and Bonny Light, which pushed prices near a 24-month high at the weekend.
The country had, in collaboration with other oil producing nations, said earlier that a rise in price to $100 pb – above the 26-month high of $91.88 hit last week – would not necessarily prompt a supply increase.
On December 20 last year, Shell, Nigeria’s oil production leader announced it ended a one-month force majeure on exports of Bonny Light after repairing a pipeline damaged by oil thieves.
The country regained its status as biggest oil producer in Africa as Angolan supply declined the most due to maintenance and technical glitches at some oil installations.
Overall, a survey by Energy Information Administration (EIA) found that the 11 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) bound by the 2008 deal to reduce output, delivered 55 per cent of the reduction in December, compared with 56 per cent in November.
Compliance peaked at 80 per cent in 2009.
OPEC has yet to be convinced that recovering demand or a strain on supplies, rather than speculation by traders, is at the root of rising prices.
Officials have said a rise in prices to $100 caused by speculation would not prompt a rise in the target.
"If it goes to $100 due to speculation, OPEC will not move," OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri, said in December.
OPEC output rose slightly last month as Nigerian supply has increased, a Reuters survey found, indicating the group has yet to boost production substantially in response to prices at a 26-month high.
Supply from the 11 members of the OPEC with output targets, all except Iraq, averaged 26.75 million bpd last month, up from 26.70 million bpd in November, according to the survey of oil companies, OPEC officials and analysts said at the weekend.
The increase mainly reflects higher supply in Nigeria after a pipeline was fixed and other technical factors elsewhere in the group that affected output.
"Until now, production was adequate to meet demand," said Christophe Barret, an oil analyst at Credit Agricole who expects OPEC will need to boost supplies in 2011.
OPEC, source of more than a third of the world’s oil, left its oil output target unchanged at a December 11 meeting, keeping the same level since a record reduction of 4.2 million bpd in December 2008 when recession hit demand and prices.
Production has risen since then as prices and demands have recovered.
Even so, the survey found that OPEC members with the most scope to boost supplies – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates – kept supply largely steady in December.
"The market is well supplied and there is no shortage," stated an OPEC delegate, who declined to be identified by name. "Our only concern is the price, how high it will go."
OPEC supply, including Iraq, rose 70,000 bpd last month, according to the survey.
Output also climbed in Venezuela because of higher supply from the country’s crude upgrading plant
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