New Telegraph

Crude oil: Brent falls to $81.37 per barrel

Nigeria lost marginally yesterday as Brent crude price closed at $81.37 from $82 a barrel at the weekend.

 

As aresult, Brent has lost more than 38 cents at the international oil market, a development, which resulted in a loss of 0.46 per cent. Similarly, United States’ West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude followed suit, as its price also went down 34 cents or 0.43 per cent.

 

Both countries witnessed a slide in the prices of crude oil because of certain challenges within and outside the industry. However, the price of crude recorded gains in three straight weeks in December and early January 2022.

 

The issue, no doubt, threw stakeholders in the  Nigerian oil and gas value chain, especially the Federal Government, into some sort of ecstasy as they saw the development from the point of recovery of the market.

 

According to Reuters, Omicron, a variant of COVID- 19, has resurfaced in major countries abroad and has forced the global oil industry to lose more grounds.

 

The report further attributed losses recorded in the prices of crude to disruptions in supply of oil in Kazakhstan and Libya, stressing that the issue was having significant impacts on the production of oil in those countries and beyond.

 

A market watcher, Prof Adeola Akinnisiju, said that the oil market was not static, as it responds to changes around it, adding that increase in crude oil  can come anytime.

 

Recall that the global oil industry had witnessed many crises in the last few years.

 

The crises include protests over capping of oil production by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a development which has generated controversy among the 14 members of the cartel that OPEC is stalling the growth of the industry and lull in economic activities, among others.

 

In the last few weeks, Kazakhstan has witnessed unrest, a situation which interrupted supplies of crude oil greatly in the market  nd problems are associated with operation of oil pipelines in Libya.

 

Although Kazakhstan has restored supply of oil in the last few days just as Libya has increased production to 900,000 barrels per day, the problems in the global oil industry still persist.

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