Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Nigeria, Africa’s top crude producer, plans to contribute $5 billion to joint oil ventures with international companies next year, President Umaru Yar’Adua said.

That estimate is based on an oil price of $45 a barrel, down from $53.83 a barrel for this year’s budget, Yar’Adua said today in a speech to parliament. Nigeria holds a majority stake in five ventures run by Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Total SA and Eni SpA, which pump most of the country’s oil.

The government reduced its oil production forecast for next year to 2.29 million barrels a day from 2.45 million barrels a day this year, Yar’Adua said.

The production assumption “is optimistic, given the likelihood of further OPEC output cuts, as well as Nigeria’s own production difficulties,” Richard Segal, an analyst at London- based UBA Capital, said in a note to clients.

The 2009 production level of 2.29 million barrels a day, as stipulated by the budget, is higher than the quota currently assigned to Nigeria by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC reduced the nation’s output quota by 113,000 barrels a day as of Nov. 1 to about 2.05 million barrels a day.

The country’s actual crude production averaged 1.92 million barrels a day during October, according to Bloomberg estimates.

Sabotage of oil installations, hijackings of supply vessels and kidnappings of oil workers in the Niger Delta, which produces almost all Nigeria’s crude, have escalated since 2006, cutting more than 20 percent of exports.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, with 140 million people, depends on oil exports for more than 80 percent of government revenue and 95 percent of foreign income, according to the petroleum ministry.

Oil traded as low as $47.36 a barrel in New York today, down 65 percent from its July record.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Okolo in Lagos at pokolo@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 2, 2008 13:49 EST