Following the relentless plunge in oil prices and increasing production output, Nigeria, a key member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, has requested an emergency meeting to discuss steps to possibly cut down oil production and prop up oil prices.
However, Nigeria’s call has been opposed by Iran, another key member of the cartel which claimed that the time is not yet ripe for such an intervention.
Minister of state for petroleum resources, Ibe Kachikwu, made the call for an OPEC emergency while speaking at a panel session at the ongoing World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, adding Nigeria’s voice to those of OPEC members, such as Venezuela, that are requesting an emergency meeting of the oil-producing nations to address the current oil crisis.
Speaking at the session, Kachikwu stated that with the oil industry in its current state, the members of the OPEC, which produce about one-third of the world’s oil, needed to do something proactive soon.
He said:“There is a lot of energy around trying to meet earlier. Obviously, some of that is a panic reaction. Do we just sit back and watch? Or do we put more efforts in talking to countries, like Russia, to try to get some consensus of what we need to be doing?”
However, Iran disagreed as the country’s oil minister, Bijan Zanganeh, stated that the organisation currently has little intention of making a drastic change.
“There should be an intention to make a firm decision in such a meeting; otherwise, the meeting will have negative impacts on world oil markets. The important thing is that there must be an intention for change, but we have not yet received such a signal,” the oil minister said, according to Reuters.
Following the crash of oil price from an average of $114 a barrel in 2014 to less than $30 a barrel presently, Nigeria’s economy, as well as those of many other oil-dependent countries, has had an economic depreciation.
Some OPEC members such as Venezuela had called for emergency meeting but others such as Saudi Arabia, said to have an eye on the happenings in Iran as regards oil production, is yet to make a categorical statement on the matter.
