Despite the huge global crash in prices, Nigeria’s earnings from oil and gas in the first half of 2020, is N2.41 trillion, 8.7 per cent below the N2.63 trillion recorded in the corresponding period of 2019.

This brings the country’s total earnings from this mainstay of revenue in the past five years (2015-2019) to N24.1 trillion.

According to the data sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, oil revenue in the first six months of 2020, accounted for 59.7 per cent of gross federally-collected revenue of N4.03 trillion recorded in the same period.

On a month-on-month basis, the report noted that in  January, February, March, April, May and June 2020, N527.18 billion, N405.33 billion, N454.34 billion, N284.04 billion and N281.97 billion respectively.

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Despite challenging global economic headwinds, Nigeria earned N21.71 trillion from the oil and gas industry in five years, from 2015 to 2019. During this period, the country’s economy went into recession, occasioned by declining prices of crude oil and low crude oil output, due to militancy in the Niger Delta region, sabotage and vandalisation of oil and gas assets across the country, especially the in oil-producing communities.

The revenue from the oil and gas sector comprise earnings from crude oil and gas exports, Petroleum Profit Tax, PPT, royalties and domestic crude oil sales.

Oil earnings from 2015 to 2019 represented 60.25 per cent of the combined budget figure for the same period.

The average price of crude oil, which is one of the major drivers of the earnings, for the five-year period, 2015 to 2019, was $55.32 per barrel, but the 2020 average has since dropped to $38.

Giving a breakdown of the country’s oil earnings, the reports revealed that N3.83 trillion, N2.69 trillion, N4.1 trillion, N5.55 trillion and N5.54 trillion were recorded as oil revenue in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively.