Energy News  
Nigeria losing $14 billion a year in oil

The Niger Delta, home to the country's multibillion-dollar oil industry, has been a flashpoint for decades amid accusations of government graft and corrupt practices by foreign oil companies.
by Carmen Gentile
Miami (UPI) Aug 30, 2007
Nigeria loses $14 billion a year to oil theft, according to Stephen Hayes, the president of the Corporate Council on Africa.

The supposed monetary losses incurred by the oil-rich West African country were calculated based on the estimated number of barrels of lost production due to corruption and crime, said Hayes.

"If you are losing 600,000 barrels a day on oil at $70 a barrel, you are losing $12 million a day on oil theft," Hayes told Nigerian newspaper This Day.

Before stepped-up hostilities by militant and other armed groups in the Niger Delta beginning in late 2005, Nigeria claimed to be producing about 2.5 million bpd. Since then, production has reportedly decreased by at least 20 percent, perhaps even by one-third, warn some analysts.

In and around the delta's de facto capital, Port Harcourt, a recent spike in violence has raised concerns about the long-term viability of doing business in the region, where foreign oil and gas operations and regularly targeted.

"The situation in Port Harcourt will remain unstable in the short term until Nigerian authorities can regain some level of control," read a recent report by the Stratfor consulting group.

"Many companies with oil operations in the Niger Delta are based out of or supported by companies in Port Harcourt. These companies and their personnel have not been specifically targeted by the groups involved in the fighting.

"However, in any unstable situation, there is always the chance that they or their personnel will get caught up in the violence."

Despite production disruptions attributed to "bunkering," when oil and gas lines are tapped at times resulting in deadly explosions, illegal sales and violence attributed to armed gangs and militants, some Nigerians say they see a silver lining to the delta's and the nation's dilemmas.

Earlier this month a leading Nigerian rights group praised President Umaru Yar'Adua for his efforts to tackle corruption and violence.

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, or MOSOP, representing one of Nigeria's most dominant tribes, said Yar'Adua recognizes the need to address economic injustices in the delta as a means of curtailing the violence there.

But the president's efforts will not bear fruit unless officials in Abuja match his dedication to incite real change in the delta, said the group.

"It is thus our view that for President Yar'Adua's crusade for transparency, accountability and good governance to be effective in the Niger Delta, the Federal Government must match its words with action by increasing its interest in the operations of the state and local government administrations in the region," MOSOP said in a statement that appeared Wednesday in the pages of Nigeria's Daily Champion newspaper.

The Niger Delta, home to the country's multibillion-dollar oil industry, has been a flashpoint for decades amid accusations of government graft and corrupt practices by foreign oil companies.

Since the 1970s, Nigeria, Africa's No. 1 oil producer, has pumped more than $300 billion worth of crude from the southern delta states, according to estimates. High unemployment in the delta, environmental degradation due to oil and gas extraction, and a lack of basic resources such as fresh water and electricity have angered the region's youth, who have taken up arms, many times supplied by political leaders, and formed militant groups and local gangs.

Following his election in April, Yar'Adua appealed for calm and in his inaugural address said he would "set a worthy personal example" by tackling corruption and violence in the delta.

Since then some of the militants have said they would cease violence against foreign oil operations that have been the focus of escalated attacks and kidnapping campaigns over the last two years.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian president has focused much of his young administration's attention on tackling problems in the delta. Most recently, Yar'Adua publicly discussed creating a national energy council to better distribute petroleum revenue and has made pledges to crack down on corrupt officials.

"Yar'Adua is throwing around a lot of political capital these days trying to bring the situation in the delta under control," Stratfor sub-Saharan Africa analyst Mark Schroeder told United Press International Wednesday.

Whether his efforts are enough to bring a notoriously corrupt and violent region under control only time will tell.

(e-mail: [email protected])

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


Analysis: Venezuelan energy chief fined
Miami (UPI) Aug 29, 2007
Venezuela's chief energy official, Rafael Ramirez, was fined recently for instructing employees at the country's state-run energy firm to support President Hugo Chavez, the latest in a series of developments that some experts say illustrates the president's quest to wrest full control of the sector.







  • OSU Sweet Biofuels Research Goes Down On The Farm
  • Grain Will Not Become Oil
  • Nigeria losing $14 billion a year in oil
  • Analysis: Venezuelan energy chief fined

  • Indian committee to review objections to US nuke deal
  • Russia US To Sign Nuclear Power Cooperation Deal In Fall
  • India's 'Red Czar': plotting to end US nuclear deal
  • King wants to speed up Jordanian nuclear energy drive

  • Invisible Gases Form Most Organic Haze In Both Urban And Rural Areas
  • BAE Systems Completes Major New Facility For Ionospheric Physics Research
  • NASA Satellite Captures First View Of Night-Shining Clouds
  • Main Component For World Latest Satellite To Measure Greenhouse Gases Delivered

  • ASEAN urged to muster political will to deal with forest fire haze
  • Humans Fostering Forest-Destroying Disease
  • The Limited Carbon Market Puts 20 Percent Of Tropical Forest At Risk
  • Lula hails slower pace of Amazon destruction

  • Researchers Clone Aluminum-Tolerance Gene In Sorghum, Boost For Crop Yields In Developing World
  • UN's FAO asks for millions more to help Peru quake victims
  • US farmers at odds with government over weather
  • Global warming to decimate China's harvests

  • Nissan to put fuel efficiency gauge in all new models
  • Toyota To Delay Launch Of New Hybrids
  • Driving Changes For The Car Of The Future
  • GM Sales In China To Hit One Million Vehicles

  • Brazil's TAM Airlines Orders 1,000th Boeing 777
  • Progress On The Hornet Capability Upgrade
  • Thompson Files: F-35 engine follies
  • Indonesia to buy six Sukhoi jets: Russia

  • Nuclear Power In Space - Part 2
  • Outside View: Nuclear future in space
  • Nuclear Power In Space
  • Could NASA Get To Pluto Faster? Space Expert Says Yes - By Thinking Nuclear

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2007 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement