USA Africa Dialogue Series - STAR INFORMATION: Crude Oil Prices Hit Lowest Point in 12 Months

My People:

In the USA, the gas price at the pump is at its LOWEST since 2009 - since Obama first took office - see Fig. 1 below.

On the other hand, the news on crude oil prices in the New Year is not encouraging (see Figures 2-4 below), particularly for Nigeria:

  - our oil productions is down;

  - interest in purchase and purchase deals of our oil is down;

  - the prices of oil (spot and future) are down, headed towards $50/barrel and lower;

  - we further discount for TRANSPORTATION because much of our oil interests are in Asia, which is close to those (in Saudi Arabia, Iran, even Southern Sudan, etc.) who would easily sell to them

Budgetarily, having gone from $78 to $73 to finally $65 benchmarks, we therefore we are in for a rough time in 2015. (See Figure 5)...which hopefully will let us to:

   - tighten our belts budgetarily, reducing frivolous expenditures, and diverting to capital expenditures.

   - deploy money for serious economy diversification.

And there you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

FIGURE 1: Gas Price at the Pump USA (Premium) - Dec 2008 - Dec. 2014

FIGURE 2:  West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil Futures $/barrel

FIGURE 3:  Brent Crude Oil Futures $/barrel

FIGURE 4:  Brent Crude Oil Spot $/barrel

FIGURE 5:  2015 Proposed Budget (at $65/ barrel) compared with 2014 Appropriation  (BudgIT Analysis)

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