As Oil Continues to Fall, OPEC Considers Options

It was another down day in the oil market: Crude prices fell more than 2 percent, with WTI finishing Feb. 23 below $50 a barrel for the first time in almost two weeks.

For a moment, things looked like they might go the other way. OPEC President Diezani Alison-Madueke said in a Financial Times report that she would call an emergency meeting of OPEC if prices continue to fall. Oil prices were buoyed by the news—briefly—until they fell again.

In addition to being president of OPEC, Alison-Madueke serves as Nigeria’s oil minister, and cheap oil has helped sow crisis in her country. The Nigerian currency, the naira, is at all-time lows against the dollar, terrorist attacks by the Islamist group Boko Haram have worsened, and national elections were recently postponed more than a month. It makes a lot of sense that Nigeria would want to put a floor under oil prices by hinting at an OPEC resolution—even if such a resolution is unlikely.

Bloomberg

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