Oil prices surged again by 2.49 percent on Friday, reaching a new 13-month peak, and surpassing the $60 price level earlier this week.
Brent Crude, the international oil benchmark, sold for above $62.6, while the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) reached $59.74 a barrel on Friday, its best performance since January 2020.
Oil prices have been on a tear since late last year as COVID-19 vaccines and supply curbs from OPEC, and its allies spur hopes that global stockpiles will continue to slide.
The United States stockpiles declined to their lowest level in 11 months last week.
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Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, had at a meeting last month agreed to cut oil production for the months of February and March by an extra voluntary amount of one million barrels per day.
This means that the kingdom’s production for the two months after both its targeted and voluntary production cuts will be 8.119 million per day.
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) stated its commitment to abide by the output cut agreement of the OPEC and its allies called OPEC+, to stabilise the global oil market.
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Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, is depending largely on earnings from oil to finance its N13.588 trillion 2021 budget.
The budget has a benchmark oil price of $40 per barrel; daily oil production estimate of 1.86 million barrels (inclusive of condensates of 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day); exchange rate of N379 per US Dollar; GDP growth projected at three per cent; and inflation closing at 11.95 per cent.
