Oil price hits $85 a barrel — first time in three months

Oil price surpassed $85 a barrel for the first time in three months.

On Wednesday, Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, rose 1.66% to $85.11 a barrel by 19.06 GMT+1, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures increased 2.25 percent to $83.05 a barrel.

The price of Brent crude had crossed the $85 mark on October 15, 2021.

Last week, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, known as OPEC+, decided to increase oil output by 400,000 barrels per day.

Morgan Stanley, a multinational investment bank, had predicted that Brent crude would climb $90 a barrel in the third quarter of this year.

The bank added that it expects oil prices to “overshoot” to $125 a barrel this year and $150 in 2023.

In the 2022 budget, President Muhammadu Buhari earmarked $62 per barrel as the oil benchmark, up from the $57 per barrel in 2021.

Rising oil prices would translate to an increase in Nigeria’s oil revenue. 

However, Nigeria has been ploughing its oil revenue into fuel subsidy shortfall payments, which stripped the country of more than N1 trillion last year.