Oil resumes rise after OPEC cut

Oil prices resumed their rise Thursday and held above the $50 barrier following OPEC’s decision to carry out its first output cut in eight years.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at a meeting in Vienna on Wednesday agreed on specific targets to enact a preliminary deal struck in September designed to ease a global crude supply glut and boost prices.
Many analysts had expected the producers’ cartel to fail to reach a deal as major players like Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia remained divided ahead of the meeting.
Crude futures prices surged more than 10 percent immediately after the OPEC deal.
At 0630 GMT Thursday, after a brief dip in early Asian trade, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for January delivery was up 70 cents or 1.42 percent at $50.14, while Brent crude for February was 81 cents or 1.6 percent higher at $52.65.

Workers ground Bristow operations in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Eket

Workers in the aviation sector yesterday staged a protest march that grounded operations of Bristow Helicopters in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Eket.
The employees, under the aegis of National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), barricaded offices of the airline in the three cities in protest of welfare and alleged plan to sack more workers.
In a swift reaction, the management blamed the development on the poor run of business in the oil and gas sector.
Recall that the company, which services the oil and gas industry, has had a dip in business since the global oil market crash. Following the downturn, Bristow, in the last 12 months, released 118 expatriate pilots and engineers as well as 21 Nigerian pilots and engineers from its payroll.
NAAPE said the shutdown of the helicopter company was due to management’s alleged redundancy

Closed banks: NDIC appoints 10 agent banks to collect depositors’ claims

The Nigeria Deposit insurance Corporation has called on depositors who lost their money in any closed banks to file their claims through the appointed 10 agent banks nationwide.
The Managing Director of the Corporation, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, made the call on Wednesday in Kano at NDIC’s Special Day at the ongoing 37th Kano International Trade Fair.
According to Ibrahim, the appointed agent banks include First Bank of Nigeria Plc, United Bank of Africa, Zenith Bank and Wema Bank.
Others are Heritage Bank, Union Bank, Fidelity Bank, Skye Bank, Unity Bank and Diamond Bank.
Ibrahim said in addition, depositors could also file such claims in any of its Zonal Offices located across the country for the payment of such claims.
He said the corporation had also extended deposit insurance coverage to the subscribers of non-interest banking institutions under the Shari’ah compliant banking services to the maximum limit of N500, 000 per depositor.
In addition, Ibrahim said the corporation had developed framework on Pass-Through Deposit Insurance Scheme to protect subscribers of Mobile Money Operators with a maximum insured limit of N500,000 per