The attack on Oil facilities in Saudi Arabia has left the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting countries (OPEC), with just 940,000 barrels per day of extra reserve to meet demand, Reuters said in a report Monday. According to the agency, Nigeria’s capacity to benefit from the shortfall is limited by production instabilities.
Godwin Obaseki, the Edo State Governor, had just at the time of the Abura spill, said that the country lost 22 million barrels of oil per day in six months.
Reuters estimates that the attack which the USA is accusing already sanctioned Iran of carrying out, took out 5.7m bpd of crude oil. According to data from the International Energy Agency, OPEC had a ‘global supply cushion’ of about 3.21m bpd. Saudi Arabia is said to have 2.27m of that petroleum, which has now been taken out by the drone attack claimed by the Houthi rebels but attributed to Iran by the USA’s government.
The attack caused a 15-per cent surge in the price of the commodity, which is good news for Nigeria’s oil dependent economy. As at 3:22AM, Brent crude – the benchmark used to price Nigerian grades, is said to have opened at $66.45 and had reached a high of $71.95 per barrel. The commodity went for around $62 per barrel on Friday.
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