SAN FRANCISCO, July 14, (THEWILL) – The budget Minister, Udoma Udo Udoma, on Thursday, revealed that the first quarter revenues obtained by the government was only 55 percent of what the government had targeted.
He made the disclosure in a discourse with a parliamentary committee blaming attacks on oil facilities in the southern Niger Delta region.
“Up to April we have not been able to meet our revenue target. We have only realized 55 percent. The bulk of this constraint is the problem in the Niger Delta, he said.
“Our budgetary production target of 2.2 million bpd could not be met. At some point in time it was down to one million.
“We have, however, been told by the petroleum ministry that it’s going up again, notwithstanding the problems.”
THEWILL recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari, in May, signed the 6.06 trillion naira ($30.6 billion) 2016 budget into law, on the prediction of producing 2.2 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) at $38 a barrel.
However, attacks by militants in the Niger Delta, which began in January, has pushed crude production to around 1.9 million bpd.
