RIYADH: Oil prices settled up more than $2 a barrel on Friday as attention turned to next week’s OPEC+ meeting and dimming expectations that the producer group will imminently boost supply.
Brent crude futures contract for September, which expire on Friday, jumped more than $3 a barrel during the session and then pared gains to settle at $110.01 a barrel, up $2.87, or 2.7 percent. The more active October contract was up $2.14, or 2.1 percent, at $103.97.
US West Texas Intermediate crude futures settled at $98.62 a barrel, rising $2.20, or 2.3 percent, after jumping more than $5 a barrel.
Nigeria spent $3.8 bln on fuel subsidies in H1
Nigeria spent 1.59 trillion naira ($3.83 billion) on fuel subsidies in the first half of the year and accrued a $1.2 billion funding shortfall for oil and natural gas projects, a report by state oil company the Nigerian National Petroleum Co. showed this week.
The report, which was presented to the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee on Tuesday and seen by Reuters, underscores Nigeria’s budgetary trouble from spiraling fuel costs and limited oil production.
The document showed that as a result of rising subsidy costs, NNPC had not remitted money to federal accounts all year. Last year, Nigeria was spending about 100 billion naira per month on fuel subsidies.
Mexico’s Pemex says 1 dead, 1 missing after incident at Madero refinery
Mexican national oil company Pemex said one person was dead and another missing on Friday after an “incident” caused by a storm at the Madero refinery in the state of Tamaulipas.
Lightning caused a truck on site to burst into flames, Pemex said in a statement, causing an oil well to also catch on fire.
Around 6:30 a.m. Friday morning, the body of an employee of contractor Amarelo Power was found, Pemex said, while an employee of contractor GMG was missing.
(With input from Reuters)
