TheCable

A survey of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) producers shows that Nigeria’s crude oil production rose by 200,000 barrels a day to 2.15 million in June, joining Saudi Arabia to help OPEC compensate for losses in oil production in Iraq due to turmoil.

According to Bloomberg, OPEC crude production climbed for a second month in June by 278,000 barrels-a-day to 30.223 million, as gains in Saudi Arabia and Nigeria enabled the 12-nation organisation marginally surpass its 30 million barrels-a-day output target retained on June 11 in Vienna, Austria.

The gain in Nigeria was the second-biggest in the survey and its highest output since September 2013. However, oil production in Africa’s biggest economy remains volatile because of unrest and incessant spills (usually attributed to theft) in the Niger delta.

Violence flared in Iraq (OPEC’s second-biggest producer) this month as a militant group seized Mosul, the country’s biggest northern city, and advanced south toward Baghdad. Fears that the upsurge may ignite a civil war sent prices higher.

Iraqi production tumbled 400,000 barrels a day to 2.9 million this month, according to the survey. It was not only the biggest drop in June,mit left the country pumping the least oil since September.

The production cuts occurred in the north, where the pipeline from Kirkuk to Ceyhan on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast has been shut since March because of sabotage. The missing output would have supplied Iraqi needs.

The 310,000-barrel-a-day Baiji refinery, Iraq’s biggest, has been closed since militants first attacked it on June 15.