Oil Below $80, Threat to Investments, Say Nigeria, Others

Nigeria on Wednesday declared that an oil price below $80 is a threat to investments in its oil and gas industry.

Daily Independent had exclusively reported a serious drop in the asset level of the country’s $120 billion oil and gas investment “as a result of the apprehension by lending banks to finance them.”
Like Nigeria, the erosion in the investment’s level has also hit eleven other oil exporting nations and President of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos declared on Wednesday that the cartel would like oil to reach a price level of $80 per barrel.

Vasconcelos declared the drop in investments’ level of OPEC countries, including Nigeria in a statement issued by OPEC on Wednesday just as the commodity traded below $69 before the end of Wednesday’s transactions.

A $80 per barrel price level, according to him, would make most investments in the oil industry to go ahead.

“We would like to reach the $80 per barrel, so that investment could be met,” he pointed out during a press conference after meeting with EU officials.

AllAfrica