Nigeria’s N12.1trn 2023 Budget Deficit May Widen as Oil Production Shrinks by 58m Barrels in Four Months

Nigeria’s budget deficit of N12.1 trillion may widen in 2023, following the country’s underproduction of crude oil to the tune of 58 million barrels in the first four months of this year, THISDAY analysis of data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has shown.
While the country has a benchmark oil production of 1.69 million bpd for the year, Nigeria has barely managed to produce 70 per cent of that figure between January and April.
A review of the data indicated that while Nigeria was supposed
to produce an average of 202.8 million barrels for the period under consideration, going by the budget projection, but the country was able to drill 144.8 million barrels, leaving a deficit of 57.94 million in the first four months.
With the production benchmark set by the National Assembly, Nigeria is supposed to have an output of 50.7 million barrels every month. However, it has fallen short consistently below that figure this year, even though it’s an improvement on production for most of 2022.
The national assembly had also increased Nigeria’s crude oil benchmark to $75 per barrel from
the previous $70 per barrel. At the time , the federal said the country will be able to fund the 2023 budget if Nigeria met the 1.69 bpd benchmark.
But it now appears from data coming out of the industry that that aspiration remains a pipedream.
In all, the country’s output was 39 million barrels in January, 36.5 million barrels in February and 39.3 million barrels in March. April was the most-hit in terms of the volume of oil drilled, with Nigeria only able to produce 29.95 million barrels out of the over 50 million barrels expected cumulative production for the month.