Brent, the oil against which Nigeria’s crude is benchmarked, dropped in price on Wednesday, shedding $2.33/barrel.

The bulk of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings comes from the sale of crude oil and a crash in global oil prices often leads to a drop in the country’s earnings.

Industry figures obtained by our correspondent in Abuja on Wednesday showed that Brent dropped to $38.85 per barrel as at 11.25am Central Standard Time.

The commodity dropped by 5.7 per cent on Wednesday when compared to what it traded for the previous day.

However, crude oil in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries basket moved up marginally in price around same time on Wednesday.

Crude oil in OPEC basket appreciated by $0.31 to $39.53 per barrel on Wednesday, indicating an increase of 0.97 per cent when compared to its price on Tuesday.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, global oil prices had been fluctuating and crashing in most instances.

Although OPEC and its allies had been making efforts to curtail the crash of crude oil prices, the price of the commodity has not been stable recently.

By Okechukwu Nnodim