Crude Oil Price Hits New High Of $79.33 per barrel

Oil prices picked up some bullish momentum as trading activities kicked up globally. At the time of compiling this report, Brent crude fluctuated and gained 0.37 cents, or 0.72 percent, to hit $79.33 a barrel as of 1101GMT.

This growth represents 9.01% and 1.88% month-to-date (MtD) and year-to-date (YtD) respectively.

The US West Texas Intermediate crude, on the other hand, followed the positive trend of the London Brent, rising 0.40 cents, or 0.53 percent, to trade at $76.48 per barrel.

This development signals more revenue inflow for the OPEC countries, especially Nigeria, which is currently facing a cash crunch challenge.

It also provides an avenue for the country to adjust its oil revenue benchmark from the $57 per barrel contained in the 2022 budget.

Yesterday’s Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting, which took place at its corporate head office in Vienna, Austria, produced Haitham Al-Ghais of Kuwait as the new Secretary-General to replace Nigeria’s Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo, who will be exiting his position in eight months’ time.

The conference agreed that Haitham Al-Ghais should take over as the Secretary-General of OPEC, with effect from August 1, 2022, for a period of three years.

According to the OPEC Media team, Haitham Al-Ghais is a veteran of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and Kuwait’s OPEC Governor from 2017 to June 2021. He currently serves as Deputy Managing Director for International Marketing at KPC. He chaired the Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of the Declaration of Cooperation (DoC) in 2017 and subsequently served as a member of the JTC until June 2021.

In its decision, the Conference expressed its appreciation to Barkindo for his leadership during his two-term tenure as Secretary-General, beginning on August 1, 2016, and ending on July 31, 2022.

Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo has been instrumental in expanding OPEC’s historical efforts to support sustainable oil market stability through enhanced dialogue and cooperation with many energy stakeholders, including the landmark DoC since its inception in December 2016.

These efforts are widely credited with helping to stabilize the global oil market since the unprecedented market downturn related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and providing a platform for recovery.