There are indications that the oil industry of the United States of America, USA, is now capitalizing on the recent upsurge in oil prices to pump-up volume in the market, leading to excess supply glut and slump in prices.

Chief Executive Officer, Economic Associates, Ayo Teriba, in this interview, argues that Nigeria could have avoided the economic recession, devaluation and inflation that accompanied the loss in foreign exchange revenue due to decline in crude oil price between 2014 and 2016, if government had taken the right step namely to build external reserves buffer that will protect the nation from the vagaries of the crude oil market.

Globally, the International Oil Companies, IOCs and their indigenous counterparts are smiling to the banks as crude oil price hits the roof at $80 per barrel.

Despite the huge N500 billion mark up on the Federal Government’s expenditure outlay in the 2018 Appropriation Bill as passed by the National Assembly earlier this week, the government is still going to hit budget surplus at end of the fiscal year as the price of oil shot up to $80 per barrel, yesterday, the highest since November 2014.

Oil price is now trending towards $80 per barrel following bullish trading that heightened yesterday in the international market which saw the price leap to $78 yesterday, up from $67 April average.