Crude oil futures rose on Friday (April 8), but fell for the second week in a row. News about the IEA’s plans to withdraw crude oil from strategic reserves is currently keeping crude oil prices low. OPEC member Nigeria, however, says OPEC has no further capacity to increase oil production,
- WTI crude futures were up $2.23, or 2.3%, at $98.26 a barrel, but were still down 1% for the week.
- BRENT crude futures were up $2.2, or 2.2%, at $102.78 a barrel, but were still down 1.5% for the week.
Crude oil contracts fell this week. The market has eased concerns about supply problems after the IEA announced its member states will release oil from strategic reserves.
International Energy Agency (IEA) member states agreed Wednesday to jointly release 60 million barrels of oil from emergency reserves after the United States announced last week it would release 180 million barrels of oil.
Carsten Fritz, energy analyst at Commerce Bank Research, said Friday, “Draining oil from countries’ reserves could greatly alleviate the supply-side situation in the oil market.”
Nigeria, meanwhile, has spoken out, saying that OPEC has no more spare capacity.
“It is not something that you can open a tap for at this point. You must have the additional capacity, the idle capacity to bring on, but it takes a lot of work and a lot of investment for it to have additional production. If there is anything we can do to produce more, OPEC will be the first to produce more. But unfortunately, this capacity doesn’t exist in most OPEC countries,”
said Nigeria’s Petroleum Minister Timipre Sylva on Friday to Anadolu Agency.
Apparently, many OPEC member countries, including Nigeria, are pumping at their limit. In addition, OPEC is said to be unhappy with high crude oil prices, preferring price levels that do not make crude oil too expensive for consumers. However, no additional capacity can be made available at this time, even though they would like to do so, he said.
However, investors should continue to assess the impact of COVID-19 on fuel demand trends. Especially in China, the world’s largest oil importer, COVID remains an ongoing important issue.
The Spot Market is Closed
Saturday, April 9, 2022
| Energy Updated at | USD Price | Change | %Change |
| Crude Oil 11.40 | 97.90 | +1.87 | +1.95% |