Global energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency (IEA)has said that Nigeria remained the biggest and seemingly unending source of problem for oil supply and surge in prices of the commodity.
The incessant attacks on oil installations in Nigeria, the Paris-based adviser-agency to 27 industrialised countries said, have made the country to remain a relatively undeviating source of problem.
Executive director of the IEA, Nobuo Tanaka who made this known in an interview with Reuters said: “Our biggest worries are Nigeria, the hurricane season, etc. We cannot relax too much.” He pointed out that while the rising tension in other oil producing nations have died down; the apprehension in Nigeria remains enduring.
The Nigeria’s oil output has, in recent times continued to dip after series of attacks on oil installations.
Royal Dutch Shell penultimate week shut down some of its crude production outlets in Nigeria after the country’s main militant group; Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND)sabotaged two of its oil pipelines.
Shell produces 225,000 barrel of crude oil per day in its Nigeria’s explorations.
Shell said in a statement that its decision to shut down some of its crude production was “to prevent oil from spilling into the environment.”
With all this, the IEA said it still expected oil demand to grow by one million barrels per day this year.
As a result, the agency’s biggest worries remained on the supply side, rather than demand, Tanaka said.
IEA boss continued: “Oil consumption in the U.S. and OECD nations is weakening but China and India have yet to show signs of falling demand, making it unclear if the price fall to below $120 is a turning point.
“We don’t know if this is a turning point. We’d like to know but we don’t have an answer yet,” Tanaka told Reuters.
He added that the current $119-$120 per barrel levels are still very high, after prices plunged from records near $150 a barrel touched on July 11.
The IEA, says consumption, which remains strong in emerging countries, especially in China, India and the Middle East, will push oil demand higher this year, despite the global slowdown, leaving supplies as its main worry.
China, India and the Middle East’s surging domestic fuel consumption has been largely blamed for fuelling the oil rally, pushing prices up more than six fold since 2002.