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LAGOS. — Nigeria is seeking $62 billion from oil companies under regulations that allow the government to revisit revenue-sharing deals on petroleum sales if crude prices exceed $20 a barrel, the attorney general told Reuters yesterday.

The government in Africa’s largest oil exporter relies on oil for some 90 percent of foreign exchange. Oil prices rose to more than $100 a barrel in 2014 before a sharp drop that triggered a 2016 recession in Nigeria, leaving the government struggling to fund its budgets. A law dating back to the 1990s that governs oil production sharing contracts allows the government to review revenue sharing once the oil price rises above $20 per barrel. Abubakar Malami, the attorney general, said Nigeria had been “short-changed” under the law and was pursuing a case for recovery if it was established that the oil companies had under-paid the government. — Reuters.