Nigeria can still cope even if oil falls to $60/barrel – Okonjo-Iweala

The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has called on Nigerians not to panic as the impact of oil price slide in the international market bites harder. This is as she reassured that the nation’s financial team has put strategies in place to manage oil prices even if it gets as low as $60 per barrel.
Stressing that since the recent drop in oil price did not come as a surprise, there is no need for the nation to panic, she posited that what was needed was a systematic and focused approach to overcome the development.
Her words, “This is what we have. Our fiscal measures comprise both revenue and expenditure effort.
“Our scenario-based approach to managing the impact of the oil price drop is proactive and comprehensive. Even if the price drops to 60 dollars we are ready.
“Panic is not a strategy. We are managing the situation to keep the economy on a stable sustainable course and we will not listen to those who want us to throw up our hands in despair and give up.
“As a central part of our strategy, we have revised our oil price expectations over the short to medium term! We have lowered our benchmark oil price assumption to $73 per barrel after some careful analysis of the possible future direction of oil price as well as the soft floor price for shale oil, which is estimated at about $75 per barrel.
“But let me clearly state that we are not taking a point-estimate position as regards the future price of oil. We fully recognize that oil prices may fall lower or even rebound. Prices could fall to $70 a barrel, $65 or even $60.
“Prices could also rebound to $75 – $85 a barrel. What we did was to work within a range of $60 – $85 thought possible by analysts, put a package of measures around an estimate at the midpoint of that range, that is, $73, and then build additional measures for scenarios at $70, $65 and $60 a barrel,” she explained.
While disclosing that the best way to manage uncertainty is to take a scenario-based approach to be ready for alternatives that may occur, the Minister asserted that, “this is what we have done.”

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EDGE NAIJA checks revealed that the price of crude oil has slumped further after oil producers’ cartel, OPEC, decided not to cut output at its Thursday’s meeting in Vienna. The price of the commodity came to its lowest since August 2010, falling below $72 a barrel, before settling at $72.82 currently.

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