A sharp decline was recorded in revenue accruable to the Federal Government from the petroleum sector, as the country’s earnings from crude oil export dropped to N5.271 trillion for the nine month period, January to September 2015.
According to data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, the value of Nigeria’s crude oil export for the nine month period 2015, represented a decline of 45.39 per cent or N4.381 trillion when compared to crude oil export of N9.652 trillion recorded in the same period in 2014.
It also represented a decline of 55.67 per cent or N6.62 trillion when compared to total crude oil earnings of N11.891 trillion recorded in 2014.
Giving a breakdown of Nigeria’s crude oil earnings in nine-month 2015, the NBS data revealed that the country earned N1.675 trillion from crude oil export in the first quarter of 2015, N1.984 trillion and N1.611 trillion in the second and third quarters respectively.
This was in contrast to crude oil export earnings of N3.234 trillion, N3.269 trillion and N3.149 trillion for the first, second and third quarters respectively, while in the fourth quarter of 2014, the country earned N2.239 trillion from the export of the commodity in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Further breakdown of the 2015 figures showed that the country earned N505.898 billion, N591.964 billion, N577.361 billion, N698.387 billion and N668.526 billion in January, February, March, April and May respectively.
In the months of June, July, August and September, Nigeria’s crude oil export stood at N617.364 billion, N572.813 billion, N512.823 billion and N525.857 billion respectively.
Despite the sharp drop in crude oil export, the country’s fuel imports rose by 6.248 per cent or N54.6 billion to N928.459 billion in the first nine months of the year, compared to fuel imports of N878.858 billion recorded in the first nine month of 2014.
This was also in contrast to total fuel imports of N1.202 trillion recorded in the whole of 2014 and N264.853 billion recorded in 2013.
Giving a quarter-on-quarter analysis, the NBS report stated that N288.871 billion was spent on fuel imports in the first quarter of 2015, as against N237.257 billion in the same period in 2014, while in the second and third quarters of 2015, the country spent N389.258 billion and N250.329 billion respectively. This is compared to N368.554 billion and N268.047 billion recorded in the second and third quarters of 2014 respectively.
On a monthly basis, the country spent N49.2 billion, N105.974 billion, N139.237 billion and N133.794 billion on fuel imports for January, February, March, April and May 2015 respectively, while for the months of June, July, August and September, fuel imports stood at N116.227 billion, N134.141 billion, N85.452 billion and N30.737 billion respectively.
In general, the NBS said, “The total value of Nigeria’s merchandise trade at the end of the third quarter of 2015 was ¦ 4.021 trillion. This was 7.8 per cent less than ¦ 4.359 trillion, recorded in the preceding quarter. This development arose from a decrease of ¦ 320.6 billion or 12.1 per cent, in the value of exports combined with a marginal decline of ¦ 17.4 billion or 1.0 per cent, in the value of imports against the levels recorded in the preceding quarter.
