Nigeria dangerously exposed to oil crash
The recent drop in oil prices will hit Nigeria hard, making a big dent in government revenues and threatening the viability of upstream projects
Nigeria is bracing to take a big hit from the collapse in oil prices resulting from the end of the Opec+ agreement and the Covid-19 pandemic. The country is particularly vulnerable as it has not fully recovered from the previous crash in 2014. Nigeria’s 2020 budget is based on an anticipated oil price of $57/bl, but the decline in the price of the Brent benchmark crude has forced the government to revise this to $30/bl while maintaining proposed production volumes at 2.18mn bl/d. The crash in prices means volume is especially important for oil-dependent Nigeria, and as there will be no Opec output limits to adhere to after March, the country can pump at will. However, in the medium-to-long t
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