Oil price fall cost Nigeria US $2.3 billion

The fall in crude oil prices has cost the oil-rich west Africa country at least 200 billion naira (US $2.3 billion) in 10 months, military ruler General Abdulsalami Abubakar told the newspaper ‘This Day’ in an interview published today. The report, quoted by AFP, said the fall from an average of around US $22 per barrel when the budget was announced in January to $9.9 by October “has messed up the budget.” Nigeria had projected 424 billion naira as total revenue for the fiscal year which began in January and ends in December 1998. Of this figure, 257 billion naira was expected from the oil sector and 167 billion naira from non-oil revenue. Nigeria, the sixth largest oil exporter in the World, produces around two million barrels per day and earns about $10 billion annually from the sector.