OPEC oil at $32 as PMB screens $38 budget

The basket price for the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil has fallen to $32.63, as President Muhammadu Buhari considers signing the $38 oil benchmark 2016 budget.

“OPEC daily basket price stood at $32.63 a barrel Tuesday, 5 April 2016, compared with $33.33 the previous day,” OPEC secretariat said on Wednesday.

When the budget was presented on December 22, 2015, crude oil prices were hovering around $35 per barrel, only to fall further to prices below $30.

The national assembly debated the oil benchmark price, considering different spots from $40 to $25, but eventually passed the budget with a $38 per barrel oil benchmark.

The production mark was also set at 2.2 million barrels per day, a figure OPEC said Nigeria had been producing below for the past quarter.

With oil prices plunging to January 2016 levels, the record budget deficit is also on the rise, and may hit predicted N3 trillion as seen in January.

Brent crude – the international benchmark for oil – was trading at $38.68 on Wednesday, while the US oil (WTI), traded at $36.85 from $35.54 on Tuesday.

With fluctuating oil prices playing a crucial role in the realisation of the 2016 budget, falling oil prices remain a threat to the 2016 budget.

Meanwhile, Buhari has said that he would not sign the budget until he receives the details from the national assembly.

“The president has been handicapped because he does not know what is contained in the details and what adjustments the national assembly must have made to the proposal sent to them,” a source had hinted TheCable.

The president later confirmed that he had not received the budget details, insisting that he would review the budget, ministry by ministry.

“I have to look at the bill that has been passed by the national assembly, ministry by ministry, to be sure that what has been brought back for me to sign is in line with our original submission,” he said in Washington. ‎

Buhari’s considerations may however not bother on oil benchmark, since $38 was proposed by his team.