By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The price of Nigeria’s Bonny Light has risen to $65.85 from $63.50 per barrel in the global market.
This increase is coming 24 hours of the concluded meeting with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, and Non-OPEC.
The leap in price was attributed to decisions taken at the meeting to impact on the market, which has been dull, due mainly to the resurgence of the Coronavirus pandemic in China and India, Nigeria’s major crude buyers in the past few weeks.
This means that the government would not be under pressure to implement its 2021 budget, which was based on $57 per barrel and 1.8 million barrels per day, mb/d, the Vanguard stated.
However, the 16th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting of the Declaration of Cooperation (DoC) which took place via teleconference on Tuesday, 27 April 2021, had “emphasized the ongoing positive contributions of the Declaration of Cooperation in supporting a rebalancing of the global oil market in line with the historic decisions taken at the 10th (Extraordinary) OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting (ONOMM) on 12 April 2020 to adjust downwards overall crude oil production, and subsequent decisions.”
OPEC had stated that “The Meeting highlighted the continuing recovery in the global economy, supported by unprecedented levels of monetary and fiscal support while noting that the recovery is expected to pick up speed in the second half of the year.
“The Ministerial Meeting emphasized, however, that COVID-19 cases are rising in a number of countries, despite the ongoing vaccination campaigns, and that the resurgence could hamper the economic and oil demand recovery.
“The Meeting reviewed the monthly report prepared by the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), including the crude oil production data for March 2021, and welcomed the positive performance of the Participating Countries. Overall conformity to the production adjustments was 115% in March 2021, reinforcing the trend of high conformity by the participating countries.
“The Meeting expressed its appreciation to the Participating Countries that performed beyond expectation in March 2021, with total over-conformed volumes of 1.23 mb/d.”
