It beats imagination to say the least that two leading global producers of oil would throw caution to the wind and sustain a mutually destructive price war that has crashed the oil price to lower than $24 per barrel at the wake of Covic-19 pandemic.

Why these two nations have doubled down on this reductionist diplomacy at a time when the world economy is at the verge of virus-triggered comatose is hard to imagine.

The price war has unleashed increased supply of crude to an already inundated international market. At the last summit of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) held in Vienna, President Vladmir Putin refused Saudi Arabia’s plan to cut oil production, preferring instead to maintain current levels, see the price fall and hurt US shale oil producers whose product is more costly to extract than Russia’s crude oil.

Whilst Saudi Arabia disapproves a temporary advantage that guarantees higher sales volume at ridiculously low price, Russia prefers to lose revenue as long as U.S companies are also caught in the disadvantaged spiral.

As the epicenter of the coronavirus disease shifts away from China and makes inroads to more nations, no one has been able to foretell when the end will be. Should Russia embrace a humanitarian diplomacy and agree with OPEC to cut production, the global economy may be salvaged.

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Bringing the narrative closer home, where does the Zero Sum Game among the three oil giants with robust foreign reserves leave Nigeria that has a mono-product economy and can barely survive the extraneous confines of crude oil?

Nigeria should skate her lane, knuckle down and diversify the economy. A state of emergency on agriculture with aggregate attention of all tiers government with a goal and a timeline to double output in agricultural produce and livestock across the nation is most imperative and apparently a choice-less path to navigate.

 

• Bukola Ajisola wrote from Lagos via email ([email protected])