The Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Wednesday revealed that the Federal Government successfully brought oil subsidy payment down to about N950 billion from N2.2trillion in 2012.

CEOAFRICA news correspondent learnt from the statement of the Finance Minister who stated during a press update on the economy that the current realities on oil output and demand suggest that the government can no longer afford to run an expansionary budgetary expenditure, that the dwindling oil output due to oil theft has put significant pressure on government revenues in recent times.

According to the report, estimates on oil production volumes as well as benchmark price for the budget which were projected at 2.53 million barrels per day and $79 per barrel, respectively, for the 2013 budget will likely go down from these levels.

The Coordinating Minister for the economy confirmed that Nigeria was losing an estimated 400,000 barrels of crude oil daily due to illegal bunkering, vandalism of infrastructure and halt in production even as she said government was working hard to arrest the situation.

Responding to questions during her briefing, the finance minister also worried that the discovery of oil in some parts of the world, especially the shale oil and gas in the United States, had become another major threat to the government’s oil revenue and that all these have been put into consideration in calculating appropriate figures for the 2014 budget.