By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The recent increase in the prices of crude oil in the international market has been blamed on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
President of the United States, Mr Donald Trump, accused the oil group of driving prices of the commodity up.
According to the world’s most powerful leader, OPEC was causing the rising prices of oil by agreeing to cap production.
Oil prices peaked in late May, hitting the $80 per barrel ceiling on the Brent futures contract and $72.24 on the West Texas Intermediate.
Mr Trump, who is evidently not happy with the latest development, expressed his frustration on the matter in a tweet posted on his official Twitter page.
“Oil prices are too high, OPEC is at it again. Not good!” the United States President wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
Members of the oil cartel, OPEC, are expected to hold another meeting on June 22, 2018 and traders are holding their breath ahead of the meeting.
Oil ministers from OPEC member countries are expected to be at the meeting slated for Vienna, Austria, and Nigeria’s Mr Ibe Kachikwu would grace it too.
OPEC producers and non-OPEC countries struck a deal in 2016 to trim production by 1.8 million barrels per day to reduce a global glut of oil.
The deal, which is due to run out at the end of 2018, has succeeded in boosting oil prices above $70 a barrel from below $30 a barrel in early 2016.
However, Nigeria was given the privilege to produce about 2.3 million barrels of crude oil per day.
Adedapo Adesanya