Oil Prices Drop To $86 Per Barrel From $95

Despite efforts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to stabilise the price of the commodity, Brent, the world's benchmark for petroleum, saw a price decline on Sunday.

OPEC's September 2022 Oil Market Report data showed that an oil rig in Nigeria was idle in August 2022 as compared to the number of operational rigs in the month before, which coincided with the collapse in oil prices.

The price of Brent decreased by 4.76 percent, to $86.15 per barrel as of 4.18 p.m. Nigerian time on Sunday, according to industry data seen in Abuja.

While the price of oil grades in the OPEC Basket slightly decreased by $0.24 or 0.25 percent to settle at $96.31/barrel, WTI crude lost $4.75 or 5.69% to close at $78.74/barrel.

According to information from OPEC's World Rig Count, there were 10 operating drilling rigs in Nigeria as of August of this year, down from 11 in July.

Nigeria had an average of 16 operational oil rigs in 2019; however, this number fell to 11 in 2020 and then to seven in 2021.

The average number of operational oil rigs in Nigeria was estimated to be eight and ten in the first and second quarters of 2022, respectively.

OPEC's data reveals that the number of operational drilling rigs rose to 11 in July of this year, but this boost was short-lived because it fell back to 10 in August.