The global benchmark crude oil hit $53.33 per barrel on Monday, threatening the expected accretion to Nigeria’s Excess Crude Account this year.

The steep decline in oil prices had forced the National Assembly to settle for $53 per barrel as the oil benchmark price for this year’s budget, down from $65 proposed by the Executive, which had to adjust it twice, from $78 to $73, and later to $65.

The ECA, which stood at about $4.11bn in October 2014, was rapidly depleted in the fourth quarter of last year as oil revenues plunged. It has now dropped to $2.45bn in December, down from about $3.11bn in November.

The Ministry of Finance had in May put the opening balance of the ECA in 2011 at $4.56bn; it reached a peak the following year at $8.7bn before declining to $2.3bn in 2013. The balance in the ECA as of May 2015 was $2.07bn, according to the ministry.

“The combination of the Chinese stock market rout and creeping crude glut is weighing on oil. That said, Brent’s still seeing support above $50 and US crude is staying above $45. There’s a lot of hedging going on at those levels,” the Director, Business Development for oil and gas at Frost & Sullivan, Carl Larry, said.