Business Insight Zone

Four of the world’s oil “majors” — BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Exxon Mobil — are set to report earnings this week. Although crude oil and gasoline prices have climbed in recent weeks, overall prices were down for the quarter, which could put a dent in the (recently very large) profits of Big Oil.

Complicating news: the past weekend’s presidential elections in Nigeria may not have been carried out fairly. During the past couple of years, Nigeria’s internal strife has interrupted exports from its oil-rich southeastern quadrant. Worst of all was a months-long hiatus in shipments that took half a million barrels of oil per day off of world markets. Given high demand and tight supplies of oil worldwide, further unrest in Nigeria — which is one of the top ten oil producing countries in the world — could drive crude prices back up again.