Oil Prices Fall after US Captures Venezuelan Leader 

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Oil prices fell yesterday as adequate global supplies offset concerns about supply disruptions due to the US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in an audacious raid over the weekend.

Nigeria’s benchmark, Brent crude futures, were down 50 cents, or 0.8 per cent, to $60.26 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was 53 cents, or 0.9 per cent, lower at $56.79 a barrel.

The key benchmarks were volatile in early Asian trade as investors assessed the political upheaval in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member Venezuela and the potential impact on oil supply.

President Donald Trump said Washington would take control of the country and that a US embargo on Venezuelan oil remained in full effect, after detaining Maduro in New York on Sunday.

In a global market with plentiful oil supply, analysts said any further disruption to Venezuela’s exports would have little immediate impact on prices, a Reuters report said.

Top officials in Maduro’s government, who have called the detention of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores a kidnapping, are still in charge and vowed to stay unified behind Maduro, but a change in government could suppress prices, analysts said.

Venezuelan production could rise by a few hundred thousand barrels per day by the end of 2026, but further gains would require significant investments, Raymond James analysts said in a note.

“Any meaningful recovery in Venezuelan output is likely to take considerable time,” UBS strategist Giovanni Staunovo said. Trump said on Sunday that the US might launch a second military strike on Venezuela if remaining members of the administration do not cooperate with his efforts to get the country “fixed”. “All bets are off in a chaotic change of power scenario like what occurred in Libya or Iraq,” said Helima Croft, RBC Capital’s head of commodities research. OPEC and its allies, together called OPEC+, decided to maintain their output on Sunday