Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylvia, has expressed strong concern about the situation which has left the country’s projection for 2020 with a shortfall that may be too massive to recover in very “short notice”.
The Minister admited that Nigeria’s oil fortunes dropped drastically from a projected $57 per barrel to $55 with devastating implications on the country’s ability to sufficiently fund the 2020 budget.
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The Coronavirus disease is taking a toll on the global economy with crude oil sales dropping drastically as companies shut down businesses.
The impact, according to Sylva, is fast telling back home as the sales of Nigeria’s crude oil in the international market falls from its projection of $57 per barrel for 2020.
Nigeria had hoped that China would provide her with the single largest sales when she pegged her projection for 2020 at $57 per barrel of crude.
That projection hit rock bottom as global price for crude dropped in the wake of the outbreak of Coronavirus disease and with the epicentre in China.
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The Minister said the country was extremely worried about the dip which could fall as low as $48 as more companies shut down businesses in the wake of Coronavirus disease outbreak.
The Minister stated this when he joined the Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum to inspect vandalised petroleum assets in parts of Lagos.
Coronavirus disease has killed over 3,000 people since it broke out in southern China in January with the World Health Organisation, WHO, saying the scourge has reached “pandemic level” as the disease spreads across regions outside China with the first case in Sub-Saharan Africa recorded in Nigeria.
