Global Oil Price Rises To $42.29, Exceeds Nigeria’s Benchmark In 2016 Budget

Source: thewillnigeria.com

BEVERLY HILLS, March 17, (THEWILL) – For three days in a row, global crude oil prices have continued to spike with the price of Brent crude, against which Nigeria's oil is priced, rising to $42.29 per barrel, making it $4.29 higher than the country's proposed benchmark of $38 in the 2016 budget.

This is despite the rocket attack launched by jihadists on an Algerian gas plant jointly operated by foreign companies, three years after a deadly hostage crisis at another facility in the Sahara desert. Algeria, an OPEC member, is one of the world's largest exporters of natural gas.

AFP reports that around 1215 GMT on Friday, United States benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in April was up 72 cents at $40.92 a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for May delivery won 75 cents to $42.29 a barrel compared with Thursday's close.

WTI had advanced 4.5 per cent Thursday, closing above $40 for the first time since the start of December.

Buying in recent days has been fuelled also by the Federal Reserve, which on Wednesday halved its forecast for US interest rate hikes this year.

The outlook, citing a global slowdown and market turmoil, sent the dollar plunging, which in turn makes oil cheaper for holders of rival currencies.

According to the newswire, with confidence growing that the world's biggest crude producers will hammer out a deal to curb output, investors piled back into the commodity after they toyed with 13-year lows last month.

Qatar's energy minister, Mohammed al-Sada, confirmed this week that exporters from within and outside the OPEC cartel will meet April 17 in Doha, stoking hopes of an agreement to ease a global supply glut.

“The expectation that the leading OPEC oil producing countries and Russia will agree on binding production caps on 17 April is lending prices additional buoyancy,” said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch.