Nigerian oil reserves drying up?

Nigeria’s oil reserves could dry up in the next 50 years, according to energy officials for Africa’s largest oil producer, citing a downward trend in production over the last five years. Many attribute the decline to ongoing violence, not depleted resources.

The director of Nigeria’s Department of Petroleum Resources (NYSE:PEO), Aliyu Sabonbirni, said both the violence in the oil-rich Niger Delta and poor performances by joint ventures comprising Nigerian and foreign oil companies have caused the country’s oil output to shrink dramatically over the last three years. He predicted the West African nation will be pumped dry in less than five decades.

Nigeria’s oil resources are being depleted by more than 2 percent a year, according to official estimates of the total known reserves both on and offshore, according to the director, Nigeria’s Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday.

As of Jan. 1, 2008, Nigeria’s “proven plus probable oil reserves” was 32.93 billion barrels, he said, noting that annual production is estimated at 731 million barrels.

United Press International