A new oil price benchmark is being awaited in Nigeria in view of the continuous fall in price of the commodity as the price of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) basket of 12 crudes stood at $45.19 a barrel on Monday, compared with $45.68 the previous day.
Leading multinational investment firm, Goldman Sachs, slashed its three-month forecast for Brent crude from $80 a barrel to $42. The firm said the price would stay close to $40 for most of the first half of this year, at which price the firm opined investment in the US shale gas industry would be held up.
The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, speaking during the fourth Capital Market Committee retreat organized by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Abuja, allayed the fears of Nigerians about the fate of the economy, reiterating that several measures were being put in place to mitigate the effects of the sliding oil price on the Nigerian economy.