2024 budget: Oil benchmark fixed at $77.96, exchange rate of 750 to dollar

President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday announced an oil benchmark of $77.96 and the Naira at N750 to a dollar for the 2024 of N27.5 trillion.

Tagged “Budget of Renewed Hope”, the fiscal estimates have a non-debt recurrent expenditure of N9.92 trillion and debt servicing projected to gulp N 8.25 trillion while N8.7 trillion is also being earmarked for capital expenditure.

Presenting the budget before a joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja, the President announced a conservative oil price benchmark of $77.96 per barrel coupled with a daily production estimate of 1.78mb/d, following a thorough examination of global oil market trends.

Additionally, a Naira to U.S. Dollar exchange rate of N750 has been adopted for the 2024 budget.

He said: “Distinguished members of the National Assembly, the revised 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) sets out the parameters for the 2024 Budget.

“After a careful review of developments in the world oil market and domestic conditions, we have adopted a conservative oil price benchmark of 77.96 US Dollars per barrel and daily oil production estimate of 1.78 million barrels per day.

“We have also adopted a Naira to US Dollar exchange rate of 750 naira per US Dollar for 2024.”

Nigeria’s oil price benchmark of 77.96 US Dollars per barrel may be line with Crude oil price rise ahead of OPEC+ meeting.

Persecondnews reports that oil edged higher on Wednesday as investors turned cautious ahead of a crucial OPEC+ meeting to decide output policy in the coming months, following a supply disruption caused by a storm in the Black Sea, leading to a price lift.

A severe storm in the Black Sea region disrupted up to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil exports from Kazakhstan and Russia, according to state’s officials and port agent data, fuelling concerns of short-term supply tightness.

OPEC+ is due to hold an online ministerial meeting tomorrow, Thursday, to discuss 2024 production targets, after delaying the meeting from Nov. 26.

Persecondnews also reports that oil also found support from the dollar’s weakness and a drop in U.S. crude inventories.

This was as President Tinubu spotlighted national security, job creation and poverty reduction as top priorities of the 2024 Appropriation Bill.