By Dipo Olowookere
Prices of oil recorded an unprecedented hike over the week just when members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are getting set for their meeting next week.
This comes despite late profit-taking due to the forthcoming meeting.
From Monday, members of OPEC will converge in Algeria to brainstorm on the long-standing supply surpluses, which has caused a slump in the prices of the commodity in the international market since 2014, forcing some member countries into economic crisis, including Nigeria.
There had been calls for cut in the production of oil so as to keep the price stable and, but these have been frustrated because of new suppliers of the commodity emerging, causing a situation of more supplies and less demands.
It is expected that at the meeting, which kicks off on Monday, a deal would be reached on solving some of the issues.
There are renewed hopes that things would come out well due to the meeting held recently at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna, which had Saudi Arabia, Iran and Qatar in attendance.
It would be recalled that in April 2016, an attempt by Saudi Arabia to cut output was frustrated because Iran failed to be part of it, citing years of Western economic sanctions on it as the main reason.
Iran said it needed enough resources to get itself back after the bans were lifted on it in January.
