By Eyo Nsima
Crude oil inventories have dropped by 4.346 million barrels, according to the American Petroleum Institute (API) data, thus sustaining the continued surge in prices.
The API data obtained by The Daily, www.thedaily-ng.com, indicated that U.S. crude oil production fell to 12.2 million bpd for week ending March 24, 2023.
But the major driver of the current market remains the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, popularly known as OPEC+, 1.16 million barrels per day, bpd oil cut.
As earlier reported by The Daily, www.thedaily-ng.com, the decision to cut supply was taken at the just-concluded 48th Meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) of OPEC, which took place via videoconference on Monday, 03 April 2023.

In its statement, OPEC+, stated: “The Committee reviewed the crude oil production data for the months of January and February 2023 and noted the overall conformity for participating OPEC and non-OPEC countries of the Declaration of Cooperation (DoC).
“The Members of the JMMC reaffirmed their commitment to the DoC which extends to the end of 2023 as decided at the 33rd OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting (ONOMM) on 5th of October 2022 and urged all participating countries to achieve full conformity and adhere to the compensation mechanism.
“The Meeting noted the following voluntary production adjustment announced on 2 April 2023 by Saudi Arabia (500 thousand b/d); Iraq (211 thousand b/d); United Arab Emirates (144 thousand b/d); Kuwait (128 thousand b/d); Kazakhstan (78 thousand b/d); Algeria (48 thousand b/d); Oman (40 thousand b/d); and Gabon (8 thousand b/d) starting May until the end of 2023. These will be in addition to the production adjustments decided at the 33rd OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting,
“The above will be in addition to the announced voluntary adjustment by the Russian Federation of 500 thousand barrels per day until the end of 2023, which will be from the average production levels as assessed by the secondary sources for the month of February 2023.
“Accordingly, this will bring the total additional voluntary production adjustments by the above-mentioned countries to 1.66 million b/d.

“The Meeting noted that this is a precautionary measure aimed at supporting the stability of the oil market. The Committee thanked the OPEC Secretariat for their contribution to the meeting. The next meeting of the JMMC (49th) is scheduled for the 4th of June 2023.”