Brent crude reaches $97 a barrel amid fears of tight global oil supply

Oil price, on Thursday, jumped to $97 a barrel. 

The price of Brent crude, global oil benchmark, jumped 3.6 percent to $97 a barrel — up from the $94.30 the commodity traded last Monday. 

The current price of the product also signifies the highest since November 2022.

The price surge was said to be exacerbated by a drop in crude stocks in the US, which added to worries over tight global supplies from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) output cuts.

On the other hand, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) were up by 2.4 cents at $93.92 a barrel — after rising above $95 earlier for the first time since August 2022.

US crude stocks fell by 2.2 million barrels last week to 416.3 million barrels, government data showed. 

On September 5, 2023, Saudi Arabia and Russia extended voluntary production cuts of (combined) 1.3 million barrels of oil per day to the end of the year.

In Nigeria, the increasing price of Brent crude, the country’s oil benchmark, is said to be a booster for the country’s earnings from oil exports.

However, it has sparked widespread concern as to whether the price surge will jack up the local petrol price in Nigeria in the post-subsidy regime, especially in the light of currency depreciation and its effect on the commodity’s  importation.