Clouds over Nigeria’s oil industry

LAGOS (AFP) – Despite being the world’s eighth petroleum exporter and sitting on huge gas reserves, Nigeria will not have it easy over the next two years, between peristent unrest in the Niger Delta and strained relations with the major oil companies.

“In view of the current problems, their goal of 4.0 million barrels per day in 2010 seems inaccessible in the current situation,” said the head of one multinational company operating in the delta, the oil region where violence and insecurity are endemic.


This absence of security means that Nigeria, which ranks fifth among suppliers of crude oil to the United States, lost one quarter of its production in 2006 and 2007. Production is currently estimated at 2.1 million barrels per day.

Oil from the Niger Delta continues to bring in 90 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign currency earnings and, thanks to the recent rise in crude prices, the country’s foreign reserves are close on 50 billion dollars (73 billion euros).

Nevertheless the government is pleading poverty and is trying to reduce its share in investments in the sector, asking oil majors to look for alternative forms of financing.

AFP