Oil prices wiped out early gains yesterday after Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, said partners in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) were in talks about raising the oil cartel's quota again, having boosted the official ceiling by 500,000 barrels a day last week.
Opec also agreed last week that a second quota increase of 500,000 barrels a day would be at the discretion of Opec president Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah. "As far as I know, he [ al-Sabah] is already discussing the matter with the rest of Opec to choose a date to announce the increment," said Ali Naimi, the Saudi Arabian oil minister.
The comments overshadowed a threat of an oil workers' strike next month in Nigeria, a fellow Opec producer.
Nigerian oil unions are planning a three-day strike from April 11th. White collar union Pengassan and blue collar Nupeng said they would give state energy company Nigerian National Petroleum Company and Nigeria's biggest oil producer, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, two weeks after the initial strike to stop job cuts made without consulting the unions, or they could strike again.
The threat of a strike was brushed off by crude oil traders as Nigerian oil worker unions have called several strikes in the past two years. The strikes have been resolved within days.
IPE Brent for May delivery dropped 39 cents to $55.20 (€41.9) a barrel in late London trade, down from its intra-day peak of $55.87, and almost $1 below its nominal record reached last week. - (Financial Times)
