Nigeria To Earn More As Oil Rises Above Budget Benchmark

Revenue from crude oil has been boosted with the current rise in international prices. The West Texas Intermediate contract for May delivery gained 72 cents, or 0.85 per cent, to trade at $85.87 a barrel while the Brent contract for June delivery added 77 cents, or 0.87 per cent, to sell at$89.69. The National Assembly had passed a N28.7 trillion budget of 2024 on a benchmark of oil price at $77.96 per barrel of crude oil. Crude oil exports accounts for over 79 per cent of Nigeria’s export revenue.

According to CNBC, U.S. crude and the global benchmark have rallied about 20 per cent and 16 per cent in 2024 as improving economic growth expectations should push the oil market into a 450,000 barrel per day deficit in the second and third quarters, according to Bank of America. Crude oil gained this week on mounting geopolitical tensions. Ukraine continued its campaign of drone strikes against Russian energy infrastructure, hitting the country’s third-largest oil refinery.

“And OPEC member Iran vowed to respond against Israel, accusing the country of bombing its consulate in Damascus and killing seven officials of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps,” it said. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s oil quota by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) remained unchanged aftercartel’s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) concluded a meeting yesterday without recommending changes to OPEC and its allies (OPEC+) current production policy.

The 53rd meeting of JMMC took place via videoconference. The current quota of OPEC for Nigeria is 1.5mbpd According to a statement after the meeting by OPEC, the JMMC reviewed the crude oil production data for the months of January and February 2024 and noted the high conformity for participating OPEC and non-OPEC countries of the Declaration of Cooperation (DoC).