Despite U.S. Pressures, Nigeria Stays in OPEC
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The U.S. looks to Africa to supply much more of its oil to reduce its dependency on the Middle East
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With
Addiotional Reporting By Khedr Abdel Baki, IOL Nigeria Correspondent
LAGOS,
July 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Following a report
floated by U.S. lobbyists who did not find favor with the government
on a recent visit to Nigeria, the West African oil giant strongly
denied reports that it was considering withdrawing from the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries so that it can boost
production.
Responding
to a report in a British weekly that Nigeria was on the verge of
pulling out of the cartel, President Olusegun Obasanjo's special
adviser on the budget, Oly Ezekwesili, said: "They are just
flying a kite."
"OPEC
is of tremendous importance to us," Ndu Ughamadu, a spokesman for
the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, told Agence
France-Presse (AFP). "We are not contemplating pulling out."
The
official spokesman of the Nigerian president, Togui Hussein, said
Tuesday, July 23, to the Nigerian television that there are no reasons
or procedures being taken to revise Nigeria’s membership in the
OPEC.
At
its Vienna headquarters, OPEC also dismissed the news report.
"Nigeria
cannot afford to leave OPEC," said a source close to the
organization, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding however:
"We have nothing official from Nigeria."
OPEC
Secretary General Alvaro Silva Calderon refused comment on the report.
Britain's
daily newspaper, The Independent, on Sunday, July 21, reported sources
as saying that Nigeria, the fifth-biggest producer in the 11-member
club, might threaten to resign at OPEC's annual meeting in Osaka,
Japan, in September.
Nigeria's
presidential adviser on petroleum, Rilwan Lukman, is currently
president of OPEC.
In
the Nigerian capital Abuja, Emanuel Agbegir, Lukman's spokesman,
declined to comment on the report, saying the issue would be addressed
at a "media summit" August 1.
Nigeria
has a history of exceeding quotas and is pursuing policies that could
raise national output still further, despite the concerns of its OPEC
partners.
The
Independent said that Nigeria's capacity expansion plans had set it on
a collision course with OPEC, and that leaving the cartel was emerging
as a likely option.
But
Ughamadu said the idea of such a move had first been floated by a
group of U.S. lobbyists on a recent visit to Nigeria. It had not found
favor with the government, he said.
Representatives
of the African Oil Policy Initiative Group (AOPIG) visited Nigeria
earlier this year to discuss Nigeria's role as a major energy supplier
to U.S. markets.
AOPIG,
formed by the Jerusalem-based think tank, the Institute of Advanced
Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS), believes the United States
should look to Africa to supply much more of its oil to reduce its
dependency on the Middle East.
According
to a report released by AOPIG in June 2002, the U.S. is pressuring
Nigeria to withdraw from OPEC so that it can provide the U.S. with
more quantities of oil.
The
report also said that the U.S. has promised Nigeria that the Congress
will mediate to reduce Nigeria’s foreign debt, as well as
encouraging businessmen from U.S. public and private sectors to invest
money in Nigeria if the latter promised to provide the U.S. with oil.
Currently
Nigerian oil exports are limited by its OPEC quota, and IASPS believes
that U.S. energy security would best be served by increasing imports
from Africa.
"With
Middle Eastern suppliers openly discussing the possibility of an
embargo, as well as continued political instability in Venezuela,
increasing and diversifying supply is a matter of national
security," says an IASPS report.
Nigeria
is already the fifth largest exporter of oil to the United States, and
with 1.5 million barrels a day (bpd) flowing into U.S. ports, West
Africa exceeds Saudi Arabia as a source of U.S. imports.
The
U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 15.3 percent of U.S. oil
comes from Africa and that by 2003 U.S.-owned firms will be investing
10 billion dollars a year there.
By
2015, west Africa will represent 25 percent of total U.S. oil needs
and by 2020 the region will be exporting some 770 million barrels of
African oil a year to the United States.
Nigeria,
with daily exports of 2.12 million barrels, remains in breach of its
OPEC quota of 1.78 million bpd and is under pressure from fellow
members of the group to cut output.
U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner
will this week visit Angola and Nigeria, the two most important oil
nations in sub-Saharan Africa.
Analysts
noted that Nigeria, perhaps more than any other OPEC member, has
struggled to keep to its quotas because of the financial demands of
its large population.
Nigeria
currently has an estimated production capacity of 2.3 million bpd and
is seeking to increase that to three million by next year and four
million by 2010.
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