The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, has said the ongoing feud between the United States of America, USA, and Iran will not affect the crude oil prices.
Speaking to a select few journalists in Abuja, Sylva said that there was no doubt that the crisis was going to affect the oil prices.
Oil prices have risen sharply after the killing of a top Iranian general in Iraq. Analysts warned the action could escalate tensions in the region and affect global oil production.
The price spike pushed oil stocks on the London stock exchange higher, with BP up 2.7 percent and Royal Dutch Shell nearly 1.9 percent higher.
Fielding question on how prepared is Nigeria for the ripple effect of the imminent crisis, the Minister said, “as at now Nigeria is not complaining because, two days before the incident, oil was already $68 per barrel, well over our benchmark of $60 for 2020 budget.”
He said that the crisis would affect oil prices in one way or the other but “Nigeria is hoping that the world remains peaceful and that things continue to remain peaceful. It is a very sad thing, we shouldn’t think that way. We don’t want a crisis in the world. What we say in the oil industry is that we don’t want prices of oil too high or too low, we want it at a certain level.
“OPEC always says we don’t want too high price for oil or too low price for oil, we want the price to remain at a certain point. Having said that, we know that tensions like this will lead to an oil price increase but if you look at it from the backdrop of what is prevailing now Iraq has always been a crisis territory.
“Today in OPEC Iraq is not given any quota as such because they are not a major producer because, of their crisis, they are not able to produce oil, so if you have more crisis in Iraq, I don’t think it will significantly affect what is happening around the world.”
