Low oil output barely enough to cover petrol imports – Nigeria FinMin
Low crude oil production means Nigeria is barely able to cover the cost of imported petrol from its oil and gas revenues, Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed told Reuters on Thursday.
Ahmed added in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos that she hoped Nigerian oil production would average 1.6-million barrels a day this year, up from around 1.5-million barrels a day in the first quarter.
Nigeria exports crude oil and imports refined petrol. A plan to abolish its petrol subsidy was scrapped ahead of national elections next year in February 2023, putting pressure on the budget as oil prices have risen.
"We are not seeing the revenues that we had planned for," Ahmed said. "When the production is low it means we're … barely able to cover the volumes that are required for the (petrol) that we need to import."
Nigeria raised $1.25-billion via a Eurobond sale in March at a premium rate and had planned to issue another bond. But Ahmed told Reuters that the government had "not seen a good opportunity to go in".
Earlier this week, Nigeria's central bank surprised markets by raising its main lending rate by 150 basis points to 13%, after inflation rose to 16.82% in April, the highest in eight months.
Ahmed said the central bank move was necessary.
Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes, including a 50 basis point rise earlier this month, alongside Russia's war in Ukraine and coronavirus lockdowns in China have prompted a move from riskier emerging markets to safe havens.
"We are certainly very, very concerned," Ahmed said of the Fed's policy tightening. "The actions that the Fed or the central bank in Europe take will affect us."
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
ISO-certified Condra manufactures overhead cranes, portal cranes, cantilever cranes and crane components: hoists, drives, end-carriages, brakes and...
VISIT SHOWROOM
ESAB South Arica, the leading supplier of high-end welding and cutting products to the Southern African industrial market is based in...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
