By Adedapo Adesanya
The outlook of Nigeria’s economic outlook brightened on Monday after Brent crude oil closed near $87 per barrel amid geopolitical tensions and tight supply.
Yesterday, prices soared as Russia’s war on Ukraine increasingly focused on attacks on energy installations and the United Nations authoritatively called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict.
A Ukrainian drone attack over the weekend has reduced capacity of a Russian oil refinery to around half. Kyiv struck Russia’s Kuibyshev oil refinery in Samara, taking out one refining unit and reducing capacity by half.
So far, Ukraine has attacked seven Russian refineries, taking nearly 400,000 barrels per day of capacity offline.
Russia, in turn, attacked an underground natural gas storage site in Ukraine and even though supplies have not been disrupted, it has forced the largest energy producer in the country to run at 50 per cent capacity. This has led to the suspension of electricity exports.
Meanwhile, Russia has ordered companies to reduce oil output in the second quarter to meet a production target of 9 million barrels per day by the end of June, in line with its pledges to the Organisation of the Petroleum Exportng Countries and its allies, OPEC+.