Uncertainty In Oil Market As OPEC Postpones Meeting

Efforts at stabilising crude oil price may suffer setbacks as the Organisation of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies struggle to manage market volatility following fresh worries over the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although over one billion jabs have been administered globally, failing vaccines and rising cases of the virus, especially in India now cast doubts on the international oil market as OPEC, yesterday, deferred its meeting, through which it would have decided price direction.

The development, which showed that the organisation still had confidence in current plans to ease production cuts by May. despite the pandemic  in India, a major oil importer, pushed oil price to above $66 per barrel

Nigeria’s economy had faced serious challenges given the impact of pandemic, which worsened economic indexes, including widening the exchange rate between the naira and other major currencies, while the government resorted to borrowing to finance the $35b 2021 budget.

Secretary-General of OPEC, Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, had alluded to the challenges at the 51st Meeting of the Joint Technical Committee, which held yesterday but expressed hope that the challenges would jolt the market.

With oil prices falling to below $1, OPEC and its allies had deployed measures, which drastically reduced output of crude oil in the market.