Nigeria’s strategic oil reserve, put at 36.2billion barrels, is expected to sustain her for the next 43 years, statistics have shown.

The statistics also show that the nation has the lowest reserve life span among the members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

The Federal Government had already set new oil targets of 40billion barrels reserve and four million barrels per day production by 2010.

This is to be achieved through aggressive fields development via the award of various oil blocks in different licensing rounds to both existing, multinational and indigenous operators as well as new investors especially from China.

Reserve figures were not specified for Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, and Indonesia in the statistics obtained by our correspondent from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency’s Weekly Bulletin.
Iraq, with 115billion barrels, has the longest reserve life span of 143 years; Kuwait, with 99billion barrels has 108 years; the United Arab Emirate’s 97billion barrels will last for 107 years, and Iran’s 136billion for 101 years.

Other OPEC member countries like Venezuela, with 80billion barrels, will last for 91 years; Saudi Arabia’s 260billion barrels for 81 years, and Libya’s 41.5billion for 63 years.

Surprisingly, Nigeria is in the top league in terms of production capacity, ranking sixth among the 13-member OPEC countries with 2.25million barrels per day capacity.

Among the 13-member cartel, Saudi Arabia has the highest daily production capacity of 8.80million b/d; followed by Iran with 3.70million b/d; Kuwait and the UAE, each with 2.50million b/d; Venezuela, 2.34million b/d; and Nigeria, 2.25million b/d.

Meanwhile, Crude oil prices rose to a record above $102 a barrel as a weakening dollar spurred investors to buy commodities priced in the United States currency, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.
Futures jumped in New York and London as the dollar fell to an all-time low against the euro. The UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index rose to the highest ever, on gains for gold, silver, sugar, copper and coffee.

A government report later on Wednesday is expected to show US crude inventories rose last week.
“This record is purely a play on the weakness of the dollar, as investors use both crude and gold as a hedge against inflation,’’ said Olivier Jakob, Managing Director of Petromatrix Gmbh in Zug, Switzerland.
“If the dollar keeps getting weaker, and we don’t have inventory builds today, it could drive prices towards $105,’’ he said.

Crude oil for April delivery rose as much as $1.20, or 1.2 per cent, to $102.08 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract traded at $101.35 at 10:52am London time.
Prices pared gains after a Persian Gulf official familiar with Saudi Arabian oil policy said prices were higher than they should be and inventory gains were likely to continue through to the second quarter.

The dollar weakened to $1.5088 a euro, the lowest since the European single currency was introduced in 1999. The dollar has declined against all of the world’s 16 biggest currencies in the past 12 months apart from the Korean won and South African rand.

“Because oil has an intrinsic value, it’s not exactly sensible that it becomes cheaper in other currencies so you get an adjustment upward in the U.S. dollar value of oil,’’ said David Moore, commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd. in Sydney. “The general strength of commodity prices would instantly improve sentiment toward the oil price.’’

Gold, up 15 per cent this year, rose to a record $963.09 an ounce on Wednesday in London, while silver advanced to a 27-year high. Among agricultural commodities, Robusta coffee climbed 2.1 percent on the Liffe exchange.

Brent crude for April settlement climbed as much as $1.06 to $100.53 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange, the highest since trading began in 1988. It traded at $99.90 at 10:52 a.m. local time.
Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators increased net-long positions, or bets on higher oil prices, in the week ended February 19, according to a Commodity Futures Trading Commission report issued at the end of last week.

OPEC crude-oil supply will fall 200,000 barrels a day, or 0.6 per cent, to 32.45 million barrels a day this month, according to preliminary estimates from PetroLogistics Limited. The group supplied 32.65 million barrels a day in January, data from the Geneva-based tanker-tracking service showed.

Ministers from the 13 members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries are scheduled to meet in Vienna on March 5 to discuss oil quotas. OPEC produces more than 40 per cent of the world’s oil.

Oil supply and demand are in balance and the price isn’t in line with market fundamentals, the Persian Gulf official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.