Nigeria lost N3.3 trillion oil revenue last year

• As OPEC members record lowest earnings in 13 years

The Federal Government recorded a deficit of $11 billion (N3.3 trillion using the official exchange rate of $305 per dollar) revenue from crude oil export in 2016.

Specifically, the revenue fact sheet released on Monday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), revealed that Nigeria’s crude oil revenue fell from the $37 billion recorded in 2015 to $26 billion in 2016.

This comes as Nigeria had already earned $10 billion or N3.05 trillion from oil export between January and April this year, according to the oil and gas revenue fact sheet of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

At the global level, OPEC members earned about $433 billion in net oil export revenues in 2016. This represents a 15 per cent decline from the $509 billion earned in 2015, mainly as a result of the fall in average oil prices during the year, and to a lesser extent to decreases in the level of OPEC net oil exports.

This revenue, according to EIA, was the lowest earnings for OPEC since 2004. The net oil export revenues reflect OPEC members as of May 2017. Nonetheless, the EIA said Nigeria became the sixth highest revenue earner among the 13 OPEC member countries in the 2016 period.

For example, Saudi Arabia occupied the number position with revenue of $133 billion; Iraq, $54 billion; United Arab Emirates, $47 billion; Kuwait, $37 billion; Iran, $36; and Nigeria, $26 billion.

It explained that the net export earnings also included Iran, which the EIA did not include in earlier reports published between 2012 and 2015.

The EIA stated: “However, Iran’s net export revenues are not adjusted for possible price discounts the country may have offered its customers between late 2011 and January 2016, when nuclear-related sanctions targeting Iran’s oil sales were in place. Saudi Arabia earned the largest share of these earnings, $133 billion in 2016, representing approximately one-third of total OPEC oil revenues.”

EIA projects that OPEC net oil export revenues will rise to about $539 billion dollars in 2017, based on projections of global oil prices and OPEC production levels in EIA’s May 2017.

On a per capita basis, OPEC net oil export earnings are expected to increase by about 18 per cent from $912 billion in 2016 to $1.112 trillion in 2017.

The expected increase in OPEC’s net export earnings is attributed to slightly higher forecast yearly crude oil prices in 2017 compared with 2016 as well as slightly higher OPEC output during the year.

For 2018, OPEC revenues are projected to be $595 billion, with an increase in forecast crude oil prices, coupled with higher OPEC production and exports, contributing to the rise in overall earnings.