There was bad news for major Nigeria and others who rely heavily on their Brent crude for much of their oil revenue as the price yesterday fell below $100 per barrel for the first time since June 2013 amid the slowdown of Chinese imports.

The October futures’ price for Brent Crude Oil extracted from the North Sea, a benchmark price for oil purchases worldwide, dropped $0.88 to $99.95 per barrel. The price for the October futures for light WTI crude oil fell $0.69 (or 0.74 percent) to $92.60 per barrel.

Participants in the market are concerned about the slowdown of Chinese imports. “China’s slowing imports this morning did not help lift these concerns. The Atlantic basin supply glut is still in place,” Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital in London said, as reported by Bloomberg.

China, the second largest oil consumer in the world, has reduced its year-on-year imports by 2.4 percent in August against a 1.6 percent drop in July, as reported by Chinese customs service. The export price index increased by 9.4 percent in August.

Brent crude had plunged 11 percent in the past two months as surging shale output in the U.S. dulled the biggest oil consumer’s need for imports, leaving an excess of supplies from producers such as Nigeria and Angola.

•File photo shows Petroleum Minister Diezani Allison-Madueke fielding questions from journalists.