FG slashes oil benchmark to $65 per barrel

Federal government has reduced the revenue benchmark for 2015 budget to $65 from $73 per barrel of crude oil.

This is as a result of falling oil prices.

Following the plunge of the global price of crude oil, the federal government made the adjustment in relation to the 2015 budget.

Paul Nwabuikwu, special adviser to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the coordinating minister of the economy and minister of the economy, confirmed this to TheCable on Thursday.

At a media briefing in Abuja in November, Okonjo-Iweala had announced that the proposed oil benchmark for the 2015 budget was $73 per barrel.

She explained that the oil benchmark was reviewed based on the unsteady price of crude oil on the world market.

Also at the fourth annual retreat of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), she said that the government had measures to hold the economy if the price of crude oil fell to $60 per barrel.

“Our scenario-based approach to managing the impact of the oil price drop is proactive and comprehensive. Even if the price drops to $60 per barrel, we are ready,” she had said.

“Panic is not a strategy. We are managing the situation to keep the economy on a stable sustainable course and we will not listen to those who want us to throw up our hands in despair and give up.”

However, she added that the government had not prepared measures for the fall of crude oil to $40 per barrel.