OPEC deal pushes oil to one-year high

 Global oil benchmark, Brent crude, extended its rally on Thursday, surging to $54 per barrel, the highest level this year.

This is coming a day after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed on its first limit on output since 2008.

Brent, against which half of the world’s oil is priced, rose by $2.32 to $54.16 per barrel as of 8:10pm Nigerian time on Thursday.

OPEC had on Wednesday agreed to reduce collective output by 1.2 million barrels per day to 32.5 million bpd and Russia pledged a cut of 300,000 bpd, prompting predictions of a possible crude rally to $60 a barrel from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley.

OPEC’s three largest producers, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran, overcame disagreements to reach Wednesday’s deal in a bid to drain record global stockpiles and boost crude prices, according to Bloomberg.

Russia committed to cooperate with the group by curbing production next year.

Meanwhile, Nigerian exports climbed by 29 per cent in the third quarter, official figures showed on Thursday, lifted by crude sales to India and the US that helped cut a widening trade deficit in the country.

The recession in Nigeria deepened in the third quarter as oil output fell due to militant attacks in its crude-producing Niger Delta and global prices remained low, choking the economy of much-needed dollars to fund imports, according toReuters.

Oil production averaged 1.63 million bpd between July and September, down from 1.69 million in the second quarter. The government’s budget calculations are based on 2.2 million barrels of oil production per day.

The Presidency said in September that India wanted to buy more crude oil from Nigeria, quoting India’s vice president as saying during a visit to Abuja.

“The structure of Nigeria’s export trade is still dominated by crude oil exports,” the statistics office said in its report.

Meanwhile, the Managing Director of Chevron Nigeria Limited, Clay Neff, has been named President of Chevron Africa and Latin America Exploration and Production, effective January 1, 2017.