Oil Price gain continues touches $76, highest since 2018

Oil is trading higher Monday touching its highest price point since 2018 ahead of an OPEC+ meeting at which the alliance is forecast to announce supply increases that won’t be enough to keep pace with the global demand recovery.

Futures in New York traded near $74 a barrel after rising 1% on Friday. The alliance, which gathers Thursday, will boost output by 550,000 barrels a day in August, according to a Bloomberg survey. However, that’s barely a quarter of the global deficit that OPEC+ itself anticipates during that month.

U.S. forces conducted air strikes on Sunday against Iranian-backed militia groups blamed for drone attacks on American facilities in Iraq, the Defense Department said. The attacks may make it more difficult to revive a nuclear deal that would pave the way for a resumption of Iranian crude exports.

Oil is up more than 50% this year as a rapid rebound from Covid-19 in major energy markets such as the U.S., Europe and China has led to increased mobility and greater consumption of transport fuels. The recovery has also drained bloated stockpiles, and the International Energy Agency has urged OPEC+ to return more supply to keep markets balanced

The minister of state for petroleum resources, Timipre Sylva, has described the country’s gas expansion programme as a highway to economic prosperity and development.

Sylva said this when he featured on News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum, the flagship interview programme of the NAN, to highlight the achievements recorded in the oil and gas sector since he assumed office about two years ago.

He noted that the Federal Government embraced the gas expansion programme having realised that the country had abundant gas resources and that there was a need to focus on it as a bridge to renewable fuels.

According to Sylva, the Federal Government is now paying greater attention to gas development because it provides a bigger linkage to the economy than crude oil.

The minister noted that employment generation from gas alone is immeasurable going by the number of people that would be affected in the value chain.