The Federal Government has said that it is planning to revise the 2020 budget oil benchmark to $20 per barrel.
This was disclosed by the Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, during a webinar conference on Citizens dialogue session on government fiscal policy decisions, which was in response to the fall in oil prices and the Covid-19 pandemic. The web conference focused on the impact of low oil prices on Nigeria’s economy.
In her statement, the Finance Minister stated, ‘’We are in the process of an amendment that is bringing down the revenue indicator to $20 per barrel’’.
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Ahmed also pointed out that the various ongoing oil and gas projects in the country will be delivered much later than was originally planned due to upstream budget cuts triggered by the global oil market crisis.
It could be recalled that some weeks ago, the Federal Government, revised the 2020 budget benchmark from $57 to a barrel to $30 to a barrel. The production output was also revised from approximately 2.1 million barrels per day to 1.7 million per day.
This was due to the unprecedented crash in crude oil prices globally, which is also caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Nigerian economy has been badly hit by the low crude oil prices and low demand and as such, has had its revenue and foreign exchange earnings heavily affected.
