Oil Prices Hits $70/b As Nigeria’s Output Surpasses OPEC+ Quota For February

Oil Prices Hits $70/b as Nigeria’s output surpasses OPEC+ quota for February. Oil price steadied after the Organization of the Production Export Countries released its monthly report, with Brent crude maintaining its earlier gains, trading above $70 a barrel on Thursday.

OPEC said on Wednesday that Kazakhstan led a sizeable jump in February crude output by the wider OPEC+, highlighting a challenge for the producer group in enforcing adherence to agreed output targets.

In its monthly report for March 2025, OPEC+, which includes OPEC plus Russia and other allies, in February raised output by 363,000 barrels per day to 41.01 million bpd, led by Kazakhstan.

The hike is more than twice as much as a scheduled 138,000 bpd rise in OPEC+ output starting in April as the group phases out its most recent layer of output cuts.

The plan for higher output, as well as concern about trade tariffs, have put downward pressure on oil prices. Kazakhstan, the world’s largest landlocked country, has been producing at a record high, and well above its OPEC+ quota, as U.S. oil major Chevron.

Oil Prices

According to the OPEC data, which it compiles from secondary sources, Kazakhstan produced 1.767 million bpd of crude in February, up from 1.570 million bpd in January. Kazakhstan’s OPEC+ quota is 1.468 million bpd.

The OPEC data also showed some other OPEC+ nations such as the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria and Gabon pumping above their quotas, but by far smaller amounts.

Umo Eno Commissions Model school In Oron, Charges Shool Heads On Maintwnance Culture

Umo Eno commissions model school in Oron, charges shool heads on maintwnance culture and directs head teachers to live in school

Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, has charged heads of schools and other institutions to ensure preservation of government infrastructures within their custody and to ensure that the intended benefits of government investments in the sector are delivered to the targeted beneficiaries.

He also tasked headmasters and headmistresses of model primary schools built across the State to utilize the live-in facilities to enhance their care for the pupils, and protection of the facilities in line with the aspirations of his administration’s ARISE Agenda.

Speaking at the commissioning ceremony of the Model Primary School, Uko-Oyukim in Oron Local Government Area, Governor Eno said a special education monitoring team was about to be activated to monitor the model schools, warning that any headteacher found not living on campus or whose school facilities are not well managed would be replaced.

He, therefore, tasked the Akwa Ibom State Infrastructure & Assets Management and Maintenance Agency to step up their vigilance over the educational facilities, adding that he was willing to bring to bear his private business experience as a hotelier, where he would work round the clock to ensure every guest enjoys utmost comfort, to make Akwa Ibom children receive the best from government investment in the education sector.

“Very soon, we are setting up education monitoring teams, and the team will help us ensure that all of these facilities are intact. They will monitor all these schools we are opening, from the washroom to the classrooms, all the facilities, the curriculum and of the work they are doing.

“The Headmasters or Headmistresses will also ensure that non of these facilities are destroyed. We must continue to maintain the standard. I am setting up a Governor’s Monitoring team, but they will work with the Honourable Commissioners to ensure that they give us the right information.

“If we come to your school, particularly our schools that are remodelled, and we find out that the standards are dropping, we will change the head Master or Mistress immediately.

If we come to the school and discover that you are not living on the school compound, we will send you back somewhere else.

“We can not use your money to put this edifice in place, only for it to go down in few months,” the Governor stated.

Speaking on behalf of Oron stakeholders, the Deputy Governor, Senator Akon Eyakenyi, described the emergence of Governor Umo Eno as God’s blessing to Akwa Ibom State and particularly thanked the Governor for accepting to be used to extend God’s love to Oron people.

According to Senator Eyakenyi, Governor Umo Eno’s value for education which fueled his drive to pursue and obtain a PhD has been demonstrated in his identification of primary education as being fundamentally imperative and therefore investing in giving Akwa Ibom children a good start up.

Umo Eno Commissions

The Commissioner for Education, Professor Ubong Umoh, presenting an overview of the project, commended Governor Umo Eno’s model primary school initiative, maintaining that such underscores his administration’s dedication to transforming the educational landscape thereby fostering academic excellence and social development.

He said the Uko-Oyukim Model Primary School, designed to accommodate 495 pupils in 19 fully furnished classrooms on a 25:1 pupils to teacher ratio, was fully equipped with library, early childcare development facilities, solar-powered ICT laboratory, modern sick bay, spacious auditorium, dedicated staff quarters, seperate gender-specific sanitary facilities, with comprehensive human kinetic facilities that enhances education and sports development.

Pupils of the school, little Miss Happiness Antai and Master Godwin Asuquo, conveyed the feelings of the school community through a special address and a ballad which expressed the gratitude of the pupils, teachers and their parents to the Governor for the kind gesture he has extended to them through the state-of-the-art facilities.

Umo Eno Flags Off Oron Maritime Hub Project, Sets Deadline For Completion

Umo Eno flags off Oron maritime hub project, sets deadline for completion. The reconstruction of the Oron Marine Jetty, an aquatic produce commercial hub, ferry terminal and leisure resort, will be completed by September this year.

The project which is meant to rekindle sea line trade activities and reinvigorate the ease of marine transport services in the coastal area, was flagged off on Wednesday by Governor Umo Eno at the Oron.

Performing the ground breaking exercise, Governor Eno said the project currently provides daily jobs for over a thousand locals here and appealed for support to the initiative.

“You can be rest assured that we will fulfill our part of the bargain to the contractor. And we look forward to coming here between August and September, because we want to wait to receive the ferry, so that we can commission all on the same day. I’d like to take that ferry to Calabar that day, and also come back.”

“We will not have the financial muscle to construct railways without the support of the federal government, but we will construct our waterways, put ferries on the waterways, and that will be our pride and our joy.

Governor Eno lauded Rear Admiral Etop Ebe, Superintendent of the Naval Shipyard, Port Harcourt for his commitment to the realization of the first passenger cruise ferry for the Jetty, saying that contract for the second ferry will soon be awarded.

The Governor added that, “the Nigeria Navy is going to train about 15 engineers that will ensure that they man the workshop so that we can have proper maintenance.”

He said it was divinity that has brought Admiral Ebe to head the Nigerian Naval shipyard at this time.

“And you know that being a son of the soil, God has given you the opportunity to put your name and signature in gold, that you were part of this project.”

Governor Eno described the project as the turning around of the economic fortunes of the people of Oron Federal Constituency, in line with his campaign promises.

Recounting his other projects in the federal constituency to include the ongoing 14.5 kilometers Nsit Atai-Okopedi dual carriage road, handled by HENSEk, the 11 kilometer Oron-Uya Oro Road, handled by Amitec, the Unyenge Road, that leads to the seaport, the Effiong Esang and Ukpong Streets and the 2.9 kilometer Road in Urue Offong/Oroko Local Government Area, which was commissioned last year.

“With your support, we will do more, because we are determined to take development to every nook and crannies of our state. And we are determined to ensure that we end the rural – urban migration.

“That’s why we’re developing all of these rural communities. So please, I’d like to appeal to the youths, to please continue to cooperate with the contractor, so we can finish this project on time.”

“While we know that the federal government will come to our aid, and continue to support us in railways, in highways, and will also support us in our quest for the Ibom Deep seaport, and support us to also get money to work on our ecological site.”

The deputy Governor, Senator Akon Eyakenyi who lauded the Governor for his love to her people recounted that in the past, Oron was known for being an economic nerve center in the country.

Mrs Eyakenyi maintained that the marine project will catapult the area back to its past glory.

The project contractor and Managing Director of JMK Construction Company Limited, Mr Faysal Harb thanked the Governor for the confidence in his ability and promised to complete the project in the next six months.

Umo Eno

The Commissioner for Works, Prof. Eno Ibanga, gave an overview of the project to have steel shore protections, four jetties, a terminal, cool room, and warehouse, a 5,500-square-meter car park that will accommodate at least 200 cars with internal road networks and a recreational center that will attract tourists, with 100% security guaranteed.

Prof. Ibanga thanked the Governor for initiating the project, assuring that he is working closely with the Delivery Advisor Mr. Orman Esin to ensure its timely completion.

Former Commissioner of Transport, Orman Esin, who is the delivery advisor for the project, and the clan head of Idua, Chief Asuquo, appreciated the Governor at the event while Rear Admiral Ebe who commended the Governor for deliberately setting out to develop the entire State, promised to deliver the passenger ferry as required.

Highpoint of the event was a vote of confidence unanimously adopted on the Governor, following a motion moved by House of Representatives Member for the federal Constituency, Hon. Martin Esin, and seconded by Hon. Kenim Onofiok, House of Assembly member for the area.