Cameroon treasury’s oil earnings down 60%

Falling production levels and a slump in oil prices have led to a 60 percent drop this year in contributions to the treasury from Cameroon’s state oil company, the firm said in a statement.Like other commodity-driven economies in Central Africa, Cameroon has been hit by lower oil prices, compounded by a drop in production which, for the first four months of 2009, was more than 23 percent down on the same period last year.Cameroon became a modest oil exporter in 1977, with production peaking at 185,000 barrels per day in 1985 before declining sharply to around 85,000 barrels in recent years.”The unfavourable international environment affected the commercial activities of the National Hydrocarbons Corporation (SNH) considerably,” the SNH said in a statement issued late on Wednesday.Credit transfers to the public treasury from the SNH had fallen to 82.81 billion CFA francs for the first four months of the year from just under 207 billion CFA francs for the same period last year, SNH said.

Volumes of oil sold by the SNH had fallen 23.11 percent to 5.38 million barrels against 7 million barrels for the same period in 2008, the SNH statement added.

Oil accounts for 50 percent of Cameroon’s total export earnings and 30 percent of tax revenues. International crude prices have risen almost 50 percent since the start of the year, but at Thursday’s level of around $68 per barrel are still well below last year’s peak of almost $150.

SNH said there were prospects of significant new oil finds in the far north of the country, where China’s Yan Chang Logone Development Holding Ltd has signed an exploration agreement with the government.

Cameroon’s growth forecast has been slashed several times since the global economic crisis set in. The latest figure for growth in 2009 stands at 2.5 percent, down from 4 percent when the government’s budget was drawn up late last year.

Soon before he was removed in a government reshuffle earlier this week, Cameroon’s then Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni said the country was seeking $144 million worth of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) from the International Monetary Fund.

Reuters