Economy

US tackles OPEC over rising Oil prices

Joe Biden, US President

—-rallies allies to saturate global market with excess supply

Eyewitness reporter with agency report

Amidst controlled supplies of oil in the international market by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries(OPEC) and its allies( OPEC +), which has raised global oil prices, the United States of America (USA) has perfected a plan to crash the soaring oil prices.

To achieve this, the US has beckoned on its allies to join it in releasing their strategic oil reserves that will saturate the global oil market with excess supply and crash the galloping prices of crude.

The Joe Biden administration came to this conclusion as the last resort after its appeal to OPEC and its allies, OPEC+, to raise production quota to boost oil supplies failed.

Consequently, governments from some of the world’s biggest economies may have agreed with the US in principle when they said they were looking into releasing oil from their strategic reserves, after a rare US request for a coordinated move to cool global energy prices ahead of a meeting of major oil-producing nations.

The Biden administration has asked a wide range of countries, including China for the first time, to consider releasing stocks of crude.

Other major consumers India, Japan and South Korea were also involved in discussions.

As the world economy rebounds from the pandemic, Washington and other nations have been frustrated that producers in OPEC+, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies such as Russia, have rebuffed US requests to speed up additional oil supplies.

OPEC nations, for their part, have said that world economies remain too fragile to warrant increasing supplies quickly.

To that end, the market slumped on Friday after Austria announced that it would reimpose a full nationwide lockdown due to soaring coronavirus cases, and Germany, Europe’s largest economy, may soon follow suit.

International benchmark Brent was down 2.7 percent to US$79.11 (RM330) a barrel, the lowest since early October.

The market has been weakening for several weeks as investors have started to anticipate an increase in supply worldwide.

With gasoline prices and other costs rising, Democratic US President Joe Biden also faces political pressure ahead of midterm congressional elections next year.

A Reuters poll in October showed 67 percent of US adults agreed that inflation is a very big concern.

Members of Biden’s national security team had discussed the need to meet fuel demand, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said.

“That is an ongoing conversation and one we are having with a number of partners,” she added.

OPEC+ plans to meet on December 2nd, 2021.

The group has been raising output by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) per month, gradually unwinding record production cuts made in 2020 when the pandemic dissipated fuel demand.

This week, Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said OPEC expects an oil supply surplus to begin building next month.

Other countries have been pressing OPEC for some time, including China and India.

“This is not a case of supplies not being available,” Hardeep Singh Puri, India’s Oil Minister, told a conference in Dubai on Wednesday.

“There are five million barrels a day of supplies available which have not been released for whatever reason.”

While OPEC+ has been raising oil output by 400,000 bpd per month since July, the producer group still has about 3.8 million bpd in supply cuts that it has not yet returned to the market.

Several of the group’s members have been unable to meet production targets due to years of under-investment.

“Half of (OPEC+’s) members can’t meet their quotas given their own under-investment,” Goldman Sachs analysts said.

OPEC+ in April 2020 cut output by more than 10 million barrels a day in response to the swift spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

China’s state reserve bureau told Reuters it was working on a release of crude oil reserves, but declined to comment on the US request.

It would also mark the first time that China, the world’s No. 2 oil consumer and largest importer, would be involved in a coordinated release with the United States.

China held its first-ever public auction of oil reserves in September.

Consultancy Energy Aspects said in a note to clients that Beijing is expected to release another 10 million to 15 million barrels of crude from its reserves in eastern Zhoushan in its next auction round.

“Any oil released from the Chinese SPR needs to be refilled within 90 days,” Energy Aspects said.

“The market should focus on where these countries will find crude to refill these tanks given just how low stocks are.”

The United States has the largest strategic reserve at more than 600 million barrels.

The US SPR was set up in the 1970s after the Arab Oil Embargo to ensure the nation had adequate supply to weather an emergency.

In the last several years, the shale boom has pushed US output to rival that of Saudi Arabia and Russia.

That has enabled the United States to become less dependent on energy imports from other nations, particularly members of OPEC.

The United States and its allies have coordinated strategic petroleum reserve releases before, such as in 2011 when supplies were hit by war in OPEC member Libya.

Economy

Court reverses self over contempt charge against Fidelity Bank chief

Managing Director of Fidelity Bank,Nneka Chinwe Onyeali-Ikpe

The Eyewitness reporter

A Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos has vacated its ruling that convicted and sentenced the Managing Director of Fidelity Bank,Nneka Chinwe Onyeali-Ikpe and Company Secretary of Fidelity Bank, Mrs. Unuigboje Ezinwa to six weeks in prison or a fine of Four Hundred Thousand Naira respectively for contempt.

The Chief Magistrate, Mr. Lateef Owolabi vacated the order in a Suit No: MIK/4726/22 between Justin Ahmed, (judgement creditor), Prince Enabulele Osazee, (judgement debtor) and Fidelity Bank Plc, (1st Garnishee/Applicant).

The court, in an earlier ruling delivered on February 6, 2023, held that the Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, Nneka Chinwe Onyeali-Ikpe and the Company Secretary, Mrs. Unuigboje Ezinwa should be committed to six weeks’ imprisonment over alleged disobedience of a garnishee order of the court restraining the bank from allowing a judgement debtor access to his account.

However, at the resumed proceedings on the matter on Feb 15, 2023, the court vacated the committal order on the premise of facts presented before the court that the alleged acts of contempt were not deliberate but arose out of a communication gap between the said parties and the erstwhile counsel.

The court in its ruling also stated that the error or sin of the counsel should not be visited on a party or litigants. The court also noted that the monies that were the subject matter and fulcrum of the contempt proceedings have since been paid to the judgment creditor.

“From the materials presented before this court by the applicant, this application falls within the classic rule where the error or sin of the counsel should not be visited on a party or litigants. Moreover, the applicant has averred that the monies subject matter, the fulcrum of the contempt proceedings had since been paid to the judgment creditor.

”Having fully discharged this payment to the satisfaction of the judgment creditor, this court should not be seen to cry more than the bereaved”, Mr Lateef Owolabi held.

”The solicitor to the bank explained that Fidelity Bank, being a law-abiding institution that will never or under any circumstance, directly or indirectly denigrate the integrity of the nation’s judiciary, had upon receipt of the garnishee order nisi on December 22, 2022, conducted a search immediately, and the result showed several accounts bearing similar names to the Judgment Debtor’s (Prince Enabulele Osazee).”

”To prevent the bank from erroneously restricting the wrong account, the bank filed an affidavit requesting additional account details to enable it to ascertain the correct account(s) to restrict.”

He further stated that, on January 16, 2023, the bank received the Judgment Creditor’s affidavit showing the account number of the Judgment Debtor. Armed with the correct account number, the bank immediately identified and placed a lien on the Judgment Debtor’s account. Unfortunately, during the intervening period, the judgement debtor had carried on depositing and withdrawing from his account.

In vacating the order on February 15, 2023, the Chief Magistrate held that based on the materials before the court, the applicant has been able to tether the law to the facts to warrant the grant of the relief sought on their own strength and not based on lack of opposition.

Economy

Supreme court restrains FG from enforcing naira swap deadline

The Eyewitness reporter

There was a temporary relief for Nigerians over the scarcity of naira notes as the Supreme Court has issued an order of interim injunction restraining the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from enforcing the February 10 deadline for the phasing out of the old naira notes.

A five-member panel of the court, led by Justice John Okoro said that it was a matter of urgent national importance that the court intervenes and grant the order.

The ruling was on an ex-parte motion filed by the governments of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara states

The order, according to Justice Okoro, who read the lead ruling, is to subsist pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice filed by the state for interlocutory injunctions.

The court adjourned till February 15 for the hearing of the motion on notice and the preliminary objection filed by the defendant – the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), challenging the court’s jurisdiction over the case.

Economy

CBN succumbs to pressure, extends use of old naira notes to February 10

The Eyewitness reporter

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has finally caved in to Public outcry over the February 1st deadline for the use of old naira notes when on Sunday, the apex bank announced February 10 as the new date.

Announcing the new deadline in a statement, Governor Central Bank Of Nigeria(CBN), Godwin Emefiele, said the decision to add extra 10 days was “to allow for the collection of more old notes”

Up till Saturday, CBN had insisted on the 31st January deadline for the validity of the old N200, N500 and N1,000 despite overwhelming complaints that the notes are either not available or in short supply in the banks or their Automated Teller Machines.

Last October, Emefiele announced the Naira redesign policy which entails the issuance of new notes to replace the existing N200, N500 and N1,000 series.