More trouble for Nigeria as oil prices touch $30

Nigeria’s dwindling resources may encounter more troubles as global prices of oil slipped further yesterday to touch $30 per barrel for the first time since April 2004.

Though the global benchmark Brent crude later rose slightly above $31 per barrel, the pick-up was short-lived as it later fell below $31.

Meanwhile, a suggestion by Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, for an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to address the continued oil price slump met with opposition from the United Arab Emirates, another member of the cartel.

The UAE, one of the Gulf nations in OPEC, has moved to quash the talk of a potential emergency meeting, with its Energy Minister, Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazrou, saying the current strategy by the cartel was working.

Kachikwu, who briefly served as OPEC president last year before Nigeria’s tenure expired on December 31, was quoted as saying that OPEC would soon make efforts to convene before the next scheduled meeting in June as the slump in oil prices was hurting producers, including the world’s biggest exporter, Saudi Arabia.

Read also: Diversify or face hard times, OPEC warns members

The 13 members of the OPEC will work toward meeting in early March, Kachikwu said in an interview in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

Bloomberg quoted him to have said that members were already engaged in informal discussions with some non-OPEC producers, including Russia, to join any future production cut to shore up prices, he said.

“We are definitely looking at a time frame in very early March. You will very necessarily have to have an OPEC meeting because the group first has to meet and decide on its position before having formal meetings with other producers to coordinate a cut,” he said.

Brent crude closed at $43 per barrel on the day of the last OPEC meeting on December 4, and was trading at $30.54 per barrel at 6.10pm Nigerian time on Tuesday.

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