The Senate on Thursday halted the passage of the Medium Term Framework Expenditure/Fiscal Strategy Paper till next week over the ongoing meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna, Austria.
This will be the second time the Senate will postpone the passage of the MTEF/FSP.
The Senate had on Wednesday stood down the consideration of MTEF/FSP due to the absence of several lawmakers from plenary.
However, the Senate Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan, while moving the motion for postponement of the consideration of the MTEF/FSP on Thursday, said the Senate should step down the consideration of the report due to the ongoing meeting of OPEC.
The MTEF is the document on which the 2018 Budget proposal is predicated, with an oil benchmark of $45 per barrel and daily oil production of 2.3 million barrels per day.
There were indications earlier in the week that OPEC may cap Nigeria’s oil production alongside that of Libya.
Nigeria has been left out of OPEC’s capping of oil production due to the crisis in the North East, which requires the country to spend more money on combating the Boko Haram menace.
The decision by OPEC to cap oil production was to shore up prices.
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