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, according to reports.
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.
The 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.