Oil prices took a nosedive on Monday, April 18, after a meeting of major exporters in Qatar collapsed without an agreement on anticipated output freeze.
Brent crude futures dropped almost seven per cent in early trading yesterday before recovering to $40.97 per barrel, still down 2.15 per cent since their last settlement.
Traders said only an oil worker strike in Kuwait had prevented Brent from tumbling below $40 per barrel, while a cut in U.S. drilling down to 2009 levels had prevented steeper falls there.
Also, benchmark U.S. crude futures were down more than five per cent at $38.31 a barrel.
Goldman Sachs said the Doha no-deal could result in a “bearish catalyst” for U.S. crude prices, which it forecast would average $35 a barrel in the current quarter.
Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, yesterday, Ibe Kachikwu has assured that despite the stalemate on crude oil production freeze, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), will continue to work to achieve consensus for output freeze among oil producers.
Addressing newsmen after the protracted meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers held under the aegis of Oil-Producing Countries Ministerial Meeting in Doha, Qatar, Dr. Kachikwu stressed that OPEC must work at achieving a workable consensus on the issue by bringing everybody on the negotiating table.
In a statement signed by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Garba Deen Muhammad, the minister said: “We are just going to work at it. It is a supply and demand issue and we need to consult and bring everybody into the circle and thank God that a committee is now in place to try and work towards getting everybody on board.”
