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Anxiety as oil prices plunge below Nigeria’s $60 per barrel budget benchmark
There appears to be a brewing challenge for Nigeria, as Brent Crude on Monday slipped below its $60 per barrel budget benchmark for the 2019 appropriation bill.
The international oil benchmark, Brent, against which Nigerian crude oil is priced, dipped by $2.10 to settle at $59.79 per barrel as of 7.45pm Nigerian time.
It plunged to around $61 per barrel last Thursday from $65 on Wednesday.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in May signed Nigeria’s 2019 budget with a production target of 2.3 million bpd (including condensates) while the oil benchmark price was pegged at $60 per barrel.
Read also: MTN admits rift with FIRS over tax status
The Federal Executive Council was in October 2018 excited by the Brent crude which hit a record high of $86.74 per barrel and had since raised the benchmark from $50.5 for the 2018 budget to $60 per barrel in 2019.
But Brent plummeted in November, trading below the $60 per barrel mark, with some experts saying that the government would need to review the oil price benchmark downwards.
The oil price, however, hit $75 per barrel in April for the first time in 2019.
By Babatunde Alao…
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