By Dipo Olowookere
The price of the Brent crude oil fell below $60 per barrel on Friday at the international market, Business Post is reporting.
As at the time of filing this report, the price of the commodity was trading at $59.19 to a barrel, declining by 5.45 percent.
This is already giving observers in Nigeria something to worry about because crude oil is the main export of the county, Africa’s largest economy.
Business Post reports that in the 2018 budget, the crude oil benchmark was set at $51 per barrel and with the recent decline; the Nigerian government will start to think of how to generate more revenue from other sectors of the economy in order not to fall into another crisis with the general elections just about three months away.
In the second quarter of 2016, Nigeria slipped into recession following a huge drop in the price of crude oil and cut in supply caused by attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta region.
The country only moved out of recession a year later after the price of crude oil started to gain weight and peace returning to the oil-rich Niger Delta.
With the price of oil already going down coupled with the gradual depleting of the external reserves, there are fears that Nigeria may suffer another economic recession.
At the global market, there are also concerns about a glut of crude supply and fears that economic headwinds could lessen demand.
With these at the corner, the price of the black gold may continue to go down after reaching a high of more than $86 a barrel early last month.
A look at the price of WTI Crude Oil showed that it went down by 7.76 percent on Friday to trade at $50.39 per barrel.
Adedapo Adesanya