By Adedapo Adesanya

Crude oil prices gained more than $2 on Monday amid global supply worries stoked by investor pessimism about ​diplomatic efforts to resolve the US-Iran war.

Brent crude futures chalked up $2.35 or 2.65 per cent to trade ‌at $90.87 a barrel, while the US  West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures grew by $2.10 or 2.55 per cent to $84.50 a barrel.

President Donald Trump said the US was not seeking an extension of the memorandum of understanding with Iran. He also told reporters Iran would not make the type of deal that he thought was necessary.

He further demanded Iran’s surrender and threatened to bomb Oman if the country gets in its way.

Reuters reported that Iran would escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, citing officials and beyond, and launch an attack if the ​US fails to implement an interim peace deal fully in a matter of weeks.

Iran’s foreign ​minister has said the waterway will not reopen until America first returns to the deal, while the US Treasury Secretary has warned of unprecedented economic isolation for Iran.

Still, oil prices are unlikely to move substantially higher unless ⁠there is a halt in the current flow of crude out of the Strait of Hormuz at night and/or a closure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Tanker traffic via the Strait of Hormuz slowed further over the weekend, maintaining upward pressure on oil prices. Only five commodity vessels passed the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, and none were scheduled to transit the waterway on Sunday, data from Kpler showed.

The data, however, does not include tankers that transit Hormuz in so-called dark mode. That compares with 31 tankers passing the Strait of Hormuz the previous weekend.

Before US-Israeli attacks on Iran began in late February, the strait handled about one-fifth ​of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.

Amid the development, Middle East producers like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia stepped up sales to Asian countries.

ADNOC sold at least 14 million barrels of spot crude to Asian refiners at premiums ​in its latest tender, while Saudi Aramco is offering crude oil outside of the Strait of Hormuz to some Asian refiners.

News about a massive build in US oil inventories helped keep prices below peaks reached earlier in the year. Stocks of crude oil in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell by about 5.3 million barrels to 293.4 million barrels last week, the lowest level since December 1982, according to data from the Department of Energy. The drawdowns are part ⁠of a ​US agreement to release 172 million barrels from the facility.

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has facilitated the recovery of $60 million from Nestoil Limited, with the funds paid to a consortium of lenders as part of efforts to recover the oil and gas company’s outstanding debt.

According to a report by Nairametrics, the payment followed a structured repayment agreement between Nestoil and the lenders, reached during a meeting convened and chaired by EFCC Chairman, Mr Ola Olukoyede.

The meeting brought together Nestoil and the consortium of financial institutions as part of the Commission’s investigation into transactions involving the company and its creditors.

According to sources cited by the publication, operatives of the EFCC’s Lagos Zonal Directorate 2 facilitated the recovery as part of investigations into alleged criminal aspects of the transactions.

The $60 million payment represents the first phase of the repayment arrangement, with about $40 million expected to be received in the next tranche.

The consortium, which includes Access Bank, Zenith Bank, Ecobank, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), First Bank of Nigeria, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Union Bank of Nigeria, is expected to continue working with the EFCC and other stakeholders to recover the outstanding obligations.

The lenders had previously stated that Nestoil’s indebtedness stood at approximately $1.084 billion and N469.43 billion as of June 2026.

The debt arose from several bilateral credit facilities extended to Nestoil by the financial institutions from 2010. The facilities were subsequently consolidated under a restructuring arrangement known as the “Global Club”, which became effective in 2023.

However, the lenders alleged that repayment defaults continued after the restructuring, resulting in substantial outstanding obligations.

The dispute escalated in October 2025 when the Federal High Court in Lagos granted a Mareva injunction freezing assets, bank accounts and shares linked to Nestoil, its affiliate Neconde Energy Limited and their promoters.

The court subsequently appointed Mr Abubakar Sulu-Gambari, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), as receiver-manager and authorised him to take possession of identified assets.

Nestoil, however, maintained that it remained operational and described the matter as a commercial dispute being addressed through the courts.

The legal dispute subsequently progressed through the Federal High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court over issues relating to debt recovery, receivership and interim orders.

In June 2026, the Supreme Court set aside interim preservative orders previously granted by the Court of Appeal and directed the parties to return to the lower court to address the substantive issues.

The lenders subsequently clarified that the Supreme Court decision did not extinguish Nestoil’s indebtedness or invalidate the underlying debt recovery process.

The latest $60 million recovery is therefore a significant development in the prolonged debt dispute, although it represents only a fraction of the total amount claimed by the lenders.

Based on the consortium’s previously disclosed dollar-denominated debt of $1.084 billion, the recovered $60 million represents about 5.5 per cent of that amount, excluding the separate N469.43 billion naira obligation.

The recovery could provide a basis for further repayments under the structured arrangement while the EFCC investigation and related legal proceedings continue.

By Adedapo Adesanya

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate cooled to 15.43 per cent in July from 15.91 per cent in June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) Report.

“In July 2026, the headline inflation rate stood at 15.43 per cent, down from 15.91 per cent in June 2026 and [lower than the] 24.94 per cent in the same month of the preceding year (July 2025),” the stats office said in the report.

This beat the projection from Coronation Asset Management, which predicted that the July 2026 inflation rate should come at 15.80 per cent, lower than the 15.91 per cent recorded in June 2026.

Coronation explained that it projected a pullback in the rate because of “three primary forces: a fresh energy price shock stemming from renewed Strait of Hormuz hostilities and a domestic refinery pricing disruption, seasonal harvest-related relief on food prices, and continued relative exchange rate stability.”

The organisation noted that the disinflation trend in the first half of the year remained last month, with the fuel price shock denting the pace of improvement rather than reversing it.

Also, the headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 0.48 per cent compared to the June 2026 headline inflation rate.

On a month-on-month basis, the inflation in July 2026 was 1.57 per cent, which is 0.09 per cent lower than the rate recorded in June 2026 (1.66 per cent). This means that in July 2026, the rate of increase in the average price level was lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in June 2026.

The food inflation rate in July 2026 was 20.31 per cent on a year-on-year basis and stood at 26.20 per cent in the same month of the preceding year (July 2025). On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in July 2026 was 5.56 per cent, up by 1.82 per cent from June 2026 (3.75 per cent).

The ease in headline inflation raises expectations that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may resume cutting interest rates from as early as next month.