Nigeria’s oil output still hampered

An exemption from Opec’s supply deal will mean nothing unless the unrest abates

Alongside Libya and Iran, Nigeria is to be exempt from Opec's proposed - though by no means finalised - supply cuts. It's the least the country's embattled oil and gas sector needs. But it also implies that Nigeria's output can rise to reclaim the loftier levels of 2.2m barrels a day targeted by state company Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). For now, that looks a distant hope. Output remains hamstrung by unrest, at around 1.5m b/d. Despite recent talks between the government and saboteurs in the Niger Delta, the violence continues. In response, so do president Muhammadu Buhari's pledges to crush the unrest. Nonetheless, Nigeria continues to lose its grip on wholesale theft of o