According to the 2016 Budget bill which it is to present parliamentary within the next days, Cameroon plans to produce next year 34.6 million tons of crude oil. This output exceeds the 27 million bo and 24.4 million bo obtained in 2014 and 2013 respectively.

The estimates included in this bill, however, are far below the initial expectations of Société National des Hydrocarbures (SNH) and World Bank who forecast that output in 2016 would be twice that of 2013, reaching 57 million barrels at the end of the year.

The optimistic forecast was due to the fact that since 2013 various fields have started production. This as a matter of fact drove Cameroon’s daily production to surpass 100,000 barrels at present with an average of 60,000 barrels; something which has not occurred since 2002, SNH highlights in its 2015 report.

Cameroon will hence in 2016, produce far less crude oil than anticipated. About 23 million barrels less than the 57 million barrels initially projected. Could it be that the actual price for the commodity on the international market impaired the dynamism and enthusiasm of operators of Cameroon’s upstream petroleum sector?  

Though this cannot be clearly defined, the sure thing is that despite the anticipated increase announced, revenues for their part will be decreasing in 2016 due to the constant price fall at the international level. Indeed, the country gave an estimate of about 397.2 billion FCFA only, against 774 billion FCFA for this year.

In regard to this, Cameroon’s government opted for extreme precaution concerning the volatility of crude’s price, by drawing its 2016 budget basing price for a barrel at $40 (though the current price is higher) against $89 in 2015.

BRM