The inability of Nigeria and other Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), including Saudi Arabia and Iraq, to agree on oil output cut has left oil price at a low of $42.04 per barrel.
Oil prices fell more than 3 per cent on Monday, with US crude hitting April lows, weighed by a survey showing output in OPEC reached record highs last month amid the biggest addition of US oil rigs in two years.
Brent crude was down $1.38 or 3.2 per cent, at $42.15 a barrel, after a session low at $42.04.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell $1.35 or 3.3 per cent, to $40.25 a barrel by 11:33 am EDT (15:33 GMT). It earlier plumbed $40.18, the lowest since April 20.
Both benchmarks fell around 15 per cent in July, with the decline being WTI’s largest monthly drop in a year. Production in July by OPEC countries, according to a Reuters survey, rose to its highest in recent history, as Iraq pumped more and Nigeria squeezed out additional crude exports despite militant attacks on oil installations.
Top OPEC exporter, Saudi Arabia, also kept output close to a record high, the survey found, as it met seasonally higher domestic demand and focused on maintaining market share instead of trimming supply to boost prices.
US oil drillers, meanwhile, added 44 rigs in July, the most in a month since April 2014, data from oil services company, Baker Hughes, showed.
“Sentiment remains quite negative following the price slump recently,” said Eugen Weinberg at Commerzbank. “It is negative because rebalancing takes longer than some market participants thought before.”
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, has assumed office as Secretary General of OPEC at the OPEC Secretariat in Vienna, Austria.
Barkindo was officially appointed to the post for a three-year term at OPEC’s 169th meeting of the conference on June 2, 2016 in Vienna. He replaces outgoing Secretary General, Abdalla Salem El-Badri, who has led the organisation since January 1, 2007.
According to the OPEC secretariat, Barkindo, an accomplished oil technocrat and veteran of OPEC, “brings with him a wealth of experience in the oil and gas industry, both in Nigeria and internationally.”
From 2009 to 2010, he was Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Prior to that, he served as Deputy Managing Director of Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), a joint venture between NNPC, Shell, Total and Eni. Before, he was Special Assistant to former Minister of Petroleum Resources and OPEC Secretary General, Rilwanu Lukman.
Barkindo also worked in several key roles at OPEC between 1986 and 2010. In 1986, he was appointed to Nigeria’s delegation to OPEC and from 1993 to 2008, served as Nigeria’s National Representative on the organisation’s Economic Commission Board.

Credit: Sun