The Nigerian government’s gross revenue dropped 42% month-on-month to N497.98 billion ($3.1 billion) in July, because of disruption to oil production caused by thieves hacking into pipelines, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
An online financial website, Platts McGraw Hill Financial, stated this in its report.
“The gross revenue of N497.98 billion received for the month was lower than the Naira 863.02 billion received in the previous month,” the ministry said in a statement.
“This was due to continuous theft of crude oil, leakages, pipeline breaks at various terminals, high-pressure compressor failures and repair work.”
Africa’s top oil producer was forced to withdraw N115 billion from its oil windfall savings account to provide money shared out between Nigeria’s 36 states to pay public workers and finance capital projects for July, the ministry said.
Oil accounts for more than 85% of Nigeria’s export earnings.
Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in July that Africa’s top oil producer’s revenues were dwindling due to the loss of about 400,000 b/d of its oil production to pipeline sabotage, illegal bunkering and large-scale theft.
Data released by Nigeria’s central bank so far this year, has shown that oil production has been lower than the 2.53 million b/d assumption used by the government for the purpose of revenue calculation in the 2013 budget.
Oil theft, known in Nigeria as illegal bunkering, is a major reason the country has been unable to produce anywhere near its installed capacity of around 3.2 million barrels per day.
source: nigerianeye
0 comments :
Post a Comment