Nigeria to trim oil exports by 5 percent due OPEC cuts

LONDON (Reuters) – Nigeria will reduce crude oil export volumes by 5 percent in November and December due to OPEC’s production cut, its state oil firm said on Thursday.

Nigeria joins the United Arab Emirates, which announced export cuts after the group’s emergency meeting last week.

“As a result of the production cut announced by OPEC, Nigerian cargoes in November and December 2008 lifting programs are hereby reduced by 5 percent,” the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) said in a statement.

“In addition, five cargoes from the November lifting program and 7.6 cargoes from the December lifting program have been canceled,” NNPC said.

NNPC said customers and operators would be advised on cancellation at the affected terminal. It did not specify the cargoes to be canceled in the statement.

The cut might amount to about 100,000 barrels per day. Nigeria exports about 1.8-2 million barrels of crude oil daily.

Reuters