Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, has stated that the price of crude will rise to $50 per barrel in the next few days.
The minister stated this while speaking with CNBC’s Fast Money on Monday.
He was quoted as saying that: “The minister for energy in Qatar and the president of OPEC is leading that pact and there is a lot of conversation going on and there’s a lot of consensus building on the issue of the freeze.”
“Saudi Arabia and Russia are aligned on the issue of a freeze, so I think the chances are very high.”
Kachikwu also said that a freeze in oil production will combat the low price of crude, noting that “the Saudi’s are quite frankly in the forefront of pushing the freeze issue.”
“I am certainly hoping for prices in the range of $45 to $50. I’m hoping a consensus can be built and that parties can begin to work together across the board, not just OPEC members, but also non-OPEC members,which is what the gulf states and most of us have pushed for. With that, you’ll begin to see movement upwards in those prices.”
The falling international price of crude has adversely affected several oil producing nations, especially those like Nigeria who based their economy solely on it’s abundance of oil resource.
However, a rise in the price of oil will, in many ways, affect the economy situation in Nigeria positively.