The statement said the decision by OPEC was made following the OPEC and non-OPEC ministerial meeting on Wednesday, noting it would reduce overall production by two million barrels per day starting from November…reports Asian Lite News
The African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation (APPO) has announced that it supports the recent decision by the OPEC and some non-OPEC oil-producing countries to cut overall oil production by two million barrels per day.
Omar Farouk Ibrahim, the APPO Secretary General, said on Thursday in a statement reaching Xinhua that it is “a decision well taken”, as he believes “it is the right thing to do to save the industry and also to ensure that there is stability for today and tomorrow”.
“Every country has a responsibility to protect the interests of its citizens, and if by reducing production, they see it as serving their best interests, so be it. When developed countries make decisions, they don’t sit and think about how they are going to affect developing countries. The interests of their citizens are paramount,” Ibrahim added.
The statement said the decision by OPEC was made following the OPEC and non-OPEC ministerial meeting on Wednesday, noting it would reduce overall production by two million barrels per day starting from November.
It said the adjustment was being made in light of the uncertainty that surrounds the global economy and oil market outlooks and the need to enhance the long-term guidance for the oil market.
Speaking at the Africa Oil Week conference in Cape Town, Omar Farouk Ibrahim, secretary-general of the African Petroleum Producers Organization, said the move was aimed at ensuring stability in the global market and ensuring that prices don’t fall too low.
“I believe it’s the right thing they did in order to save the industry,” he said, “and I totally think that every country has the responsibility to protect the interests of its citizens. And if by reducing production they see that as in their best interest, so be it.”
Rashid Ali Abdallah, executive director of the African Energy Commission, said it was too early to tell what the impact of the planned cuts would be.
“I hope that the price is not shooting up, because in Africa we depend on oil products in power generation,” he said.
Natacha Massano, vice president of Angola’s National Agency for Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels, said she wasn’t sure how the announcement would affect her country. Angola is one of the two biggest oil producers in Africa; Nigeria is the other, and both are OPEC members.
“Some countries will be affected more than the others,” Massano said. “Some are benefiting — of course, the producers may benefit from the high prices, but at the same time they are paying also for all other commodities.”
Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s biggest producer, has denied colluding with Russia on the production target cut.
However, Herman Wang, managing editor of Vienna-based OPEC and Middle East News, said one couldn’t tell what was discussed behind closed doors. He said he thought the cut was clearly “a big win for Russia.”
“You know that they are trying to raise money for their war effort in Ukraine,” Wang said. “Again, like all these OPEC countries, [Russia is] heavily reliant on oil revenues, and when you have a case where the outlook for the war is quite dire, [Russia is] needing this revenue. And the other impact of this is that higher oil prices make it harder for the West to enforce and impose their sanctions on Russia. So that might have been part of the calculation here for Russia in terms of trying to get this production cut done.”
OPEC+ members said the group would cut production targets by 2 million barrels per day.
US President Joe Biden called the move shortsighted, noting the global economy has been dealing with the negative impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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