Oil price falls to $75 a barrel — first time in one year

Oil price fell to $75 a barrel on Thursday for the first time in over a year.

The development comes 24 hours after Brent crude hit a 2022 low of $77 a barrel.

Falling further, Brent crude, the world’s oil benchmark, dipped 1.56 percent to $75.97 a barrel — first time since December 1, 2021.

West Texas Intermediate crude also dropped 0.47 percent to $71.67 a barrel.

The decline follows the prospect that Canada’s 622,000 barrel-per-day Keystone pipeline, which was shut down after an oil release, would resume service.

This, Reuters said, would return a hefty amount of crude to the market at a time when global economic slowdowns are raising fuel demand fears.

“The concern about the Keystone situation is just not there anymore, and I think that will get back up and running in no time so it won’t be a material loss of crude…,” John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York, told Reuters.

“We’re back looking at the demand outlook.”

Although the current international price for crude oil has dropped significantly, it is still above Nigeria’s 2022 benchmark of $62 a barrel. 

In the face of the Russia-Ukraine war, international oil prices rose at an exponential rate in the year, before falling below $100 a barrel.

With the country’s oil wealth and export status, high prices should mean higher revenue but petrol subsidy continues to erode gains.

Also, the country failed to maximise the increased oil prices due to underproduction — hovering below the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) quota.