TUE. 13 DEC, 2022-theGBJournal| Last week, the price of Brent reversed its prior week’s gain, falling 11.07% to settle at US$76.10/bbl, the lowest level since 22 December 2021.
Consequently, Brent is now down 2.16% year-to-date and has traded at an average of US$100.08/bbl, 41.18% higher than the average of US$70.89/bbl in 2021.
Oil prices hit a 12-month low following renewed concerns of economic slowdowns in major markets. In addition, data from the Energy Information Administration showed that US crude production rose to 12.2 million barrels per day last week, its highest level since August, suggesting that global supply is rising.
Earlier it was thought that the easing of COVID-19 curbs in China would spur global demand, yet the overall global demand picture seems not to support this. We maintain that prices are likely to remain well above the US$73.00/bbl set in Nigeria’s government budget.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s oil production bounced to 1.59 million b/d last week, according to the NNPC Limited, a huge improvement compared to the estimated 900,000 b/d in September-October as many projects in force majeure gradually come back.
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