CRUDE OIL DROPS TO $41.50 PER BARREL

There are strong indications that crude oil price at the international market is showing no signs of recovery as it plummeted further to $41.50 per barrel on Wednesday.

According to the calculations of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Wednesday, the crude price crashed from $43.55 per barrel on Tuesday to $41.50 per barrel on Wednesday with no sign of quick recovery.
The decision by members of the group, at its November 2014 conference, not to cut production to save the crude price was seen by experts as a major factor for the downward movement in crude price.
As a member of OPEC, Nigeria has been affected significantly by the drop in price.
On Tuesday, the National Assembly had attempted to review downward the crude oil benchmark for the 2015 budget which was put at $65 per barrel.
But attempts were not successful due to difference in the position of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The Senate had proposed $40 per barrel, the House of Representatives proposed $45 per barrel, while the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was reported to have insisted on $65 per barrel; a position experts considered unrealistic.
Since June 2014, crude oil price has crashed from a record high of $130 per barrel to a record low of $41.50 per barrel in 10 years.