The international oil benchmark, Brent crude, rose above $84 per barrel on Wednesday on tight supply and unceasing worries about the impact of Omicron coronavirus variant on the oil demand.
Brent, against which Nigeria’s crude oil is priced, rose by $1.42 to $85.14 per barrel on Wednesday. The Senior Market Analyst, Asia Pacific at OANDA, Jeffrey Halley, said in a note that Brent could be lookin at an increase towards $100 per barrel this quarter.
He said, “Assuming China doesn’t suffer a sharp slowdown, that omicron actually becomes omi-gone, and with OPEC+’s ability to raise production clearly limited, I see no reason why Brent crude cannot move towards $100.00 in Q1, possibly sooner.
“Having said that, I acknowledge there are plenty of variable outcomes in the previous sentence, the biggest threat being omicron in China, India, and Indonesia.”
Forward looking into 2023, the latest STEO forecasts that Brent spot prices could drop to $67.50 per barrel next year. Brent prices averaged $70.89 per barrel in 2021.
The organization expects global liquid fuels usage will grow by 3.6 million barrels per day in 2022 and by 1.8 million barrels per day in 2023.
By the Organization Of The Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) crude oil production is expected to rise by 2.5 million barrels per day to average 28.8 million barrels per day in 2022 and by a further 100,000 barrels per day in 2023 to average 28.9 million barrels per day.
