Posted by By Ayodele Aminu on
Nigeria earned $3.37 billion (N448.8 billion) from crude oil exports last June 2005, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)has said.
Nigeria earned $3.37 billion (N448.8 billion) from crude oil exports last June 2005, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)has said.
In its monthly report for June, the CBN stated that Nigeria exported 2.05 million barrels of crude oil per day (bpd) or 61.50 million for the whole month, from a total production of 2.50 million bpd, including condensates and natural gas liquids (NGL), during the period in review.
According to the CBN, these compared to the 2.45 million bpd of crude produced in the preceding month, May with exports totaling 2.00 million bpd.
The price of the country's main export crude, the Bonny Light, averaged $54.93 per barrel during the period, indicating an increase of US$5.96 per barrel or 10.8 per cent over the level in the preceding month.
'The prices of other competing crudes, namely the UK Brent, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Forcados similarly rose by 9.90, 12.59 and 11.40 per cent to US$53.65, US56.08 and US54.44, respectively.
'The development was attributed to the increase in global oil demand, especially the growing demand in China and India as well as concerns about supply disruptions arising from the regional conflicts and oil company operational problems in major crude oil producing countries such as Nigeria, Iraq and Russia," the report stated.
With oil price currently as high as $64 per barrel, Nigeria stands to further increase her earnings from oil exports.
The average oil prices during the month in review, was however, still 45 per cent or $24.93 above the benchmark price of $30 per barrel adopted in the 2005 budget.
Oil exports account for about 90 percent of Nigeria's foreign exchange earning. The CBN said the higher oil price above the budget benchmark, pushed further Nigeria's external reserves, which now stands at $24.39 billion by June 2005.
Last June's figure indicates an increase of 4.7 per cent or $1.1 billion over the previous month's (May 2005) figure, which stood at $23.29 billion.
The nation's reserves during the review month, according to the apex bank, could finance about 15.9 months of current foreign exchange disbursement.
The report also indicated that foreign exchange inflow and outflow through the apex bank in June amounted to $2.76 billion and $1.53 billion respectively, indicating a net inflow of $1.23 billion.
Compared with their (inflow and outflows) respective levels of $2.36 billion and $1.28 billion in the preceding month (May), both inflow and outflow rose by 16.9 and 19.5 per cent respectively, the CBN maintained.
'Cumulatively, inflow and outflow through the CBN from January to June 2005 stood at US$15.0 billion and US$8.0 billion, respectively compared with US$10.8 billion and US$7.6 billion in the corresponding period of 2004.
'Provisional data on aggregate foreign exchange flows through the economy in June 2005 indicated that total inflow rose by 10.1 per cent to US$4.01 billion. Oil sector receipts, which accounted for 64.7 per cent of the total, rose by 16.9 per cent from the preceding month's level to US$2.60 billion.
'However, receipts through autonomous sources, with a share of 31.2 per cent of the total, declined by 3.0 per cent to US$1.25 billion in June 2005," stated the report.