Nigeria, others lose $500m daily to oil price crash

With the steep fall in crude oil prices this week, Nigeria and other members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries are bleeding over $500m a day in lost revenue.

Saudi Arabia launched an oil price war last Saturday following the failure of OPEC and its 10 allies, led by Russia, to broker a deal on Friday.

For the most part, oil is a top income source for OPEC members and such a dramatic fall in prices will put strain on their economies, some of which are already on the brink, according to Reuters.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, was down by as much as 31 per cent to $31.02 on Monday, their lowest since mid-February 2016.

At that low, prices were down nearly $20 a barrel from a high before the meeting of OPEC and its allies on March 6. This means that in total, and based on their average February production, OPEC members lost more than $500m in revenue, according to Reuters’ calculations.

The losses are a lot more pronounced when compared with the high of $71.75 a barrel that Brent hit in January.

OPEC has been pushing for expanding the existing cuts with its allies, known as OPEC+, by an additional 1.5 million barrels per day to over 3.0 million bpd until the end of the year.

Russia turned the proposal down, causing the collapse of the alliance and the start of a price war over market share.

Nigeria and Algeria on Monday said the breakdown of the deal would be painful for producers.

For some nations, including one of the group’s richest members, Saudi Arabia, fiscal budget break-even oil prices were already much higher than the oil price before the most recent collapse.