(Business in Cameroon) - The share of oil revenues in the Cameroonian State budget is forecasted to drop from XAF450 billion this year to XAF409 billion in 2020 before further falling to XAF390 billion in 2021, making a total decline by XAF60 billion over the 3-year period. This was revealed in the provisional operation table (Tofe) made available by the finance department.
While the real reasons for this diminution are not clearly specified, it can be attributable to the fluctuation in international crude oil prices per barrel, in relation to the value of the dollar, and even the evolution of local production, which has been declining in recent years.
Indeed, as already seen by the American rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) in a 2015 report, after it reached for the first time since 2002, the 100,000 barrel per day over the first four months of 2015, Cameroon's crude oil output has dropped significantly since 2017, from 34.9 million tons in 2015 to less than 30 million tons in the last two years.
This year, the annual production projected by the Cameroonian government is only 24.5 million tons, compared to 33.6 million tons actually produced in 2016.
BRM