Nigerian crude oil settled at $75.68 per barrel in the last trading session of February, driven by heightened geopolitical uncertainty. Oil traders favor Nigerian oil blends due to their high quality, with key blends like Brass River, Bonny Light, and Qua Iboe trading above $75 per barrel.
This premium pricing, approximately $3 higher than the Brent contract, demonstrates the preference for Nigerian oil. The Brent crude futures ended Friday’s trading session at $72.81 per barrel, down 1.2 percent, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) posted a 0.84 percent decline, closing at $69.76 per barrel.
Notably, WTI, the preferred import blend for Dangote Refinery, rallied before a heated exchange between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former U.S. President Donald Trump regarding a potential cease-fire deal in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. These major oil benchmarks recorded monthly declines for the first time in three months.