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Until the global economy recovers, Organisation Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has to make sure it does not put too much crude oil in the market because it would drive down petroleum prices, Nigeria’s oil minister warned on Tuesday. “It would be fool hardy for us to assume that this international economy is out of the woods and start pumping oil,” Rilwanu Lukman told reporters at a briefing sponsored by the United States Energy Association. “Until it’s fully recovered, we have to be careful how much oil we put on the market,” he added. The current oil market has to be handled with “a certain amount of delicacy,” Lukman said. Lukman would not speculate on whether ministers from the the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would decide to change the producer group’s oil output levels when they meet on December 22. Separately, he said Nigeria is currently producing about 1.7 million barrels per day in crude oil, but could possibly ramp up output by another 500,000 bpd by the end of next year if OPEC decided to increase production levels. Lukman said Nigeria has a production capacity of about 3.7 million bpd, but much of that capacity has been damaged by militants and needs to be repaired. Nigeria’s 2010 budget proposal is based on 2.088 million bpd as against 2.290 million bpd in 2009. It was 2.450 million bpd in 2008.