Nigerian oil production remains high
Nigeria's oil minister said production was at 1.9 mbpd in December. That's being touted as a rise on newswires but in late November, officials there said they were pumping close to that level so it shouldn't come as a surprise.
Nigeria had targeted 2.2mbpd last year but fell far short with some periods as low as 0.9 mbpd due to rebel attacks.
Nigeria and Libya are exempt from OPEC quotas and are the major wildcards this year. Combined they have more than 2mbps of spare capacity but are struggling to get it online.
WTI is trading at a session low, down $1.48 to $52.52. One thing that's weighing is some positive talk from Kuwait regarding OPEC quota commitment from them and the rest of the cartel.
