Iyobosa Uwugiaren
Abuja
Unless
drastic measures are taken to curtail the activities of militants in
the Niger Delta region, Nigeria would have to struggle to extricate
itself from the economic consequences of the crisis in the next few
months. Monitors and experts in the energy sector say the seeming
criminal activities of the militants in the region, which had in the
last few months hugely affected the sector negatively, would snowball
into a serious economic crisis for the nation, if not checked. As one
expert put it: "The Nigerian oil industry may soon be in the throes of
the development in Angola at the heat of the civil war in the 1980s."
"At
the heat of the Angolan civil war, oil companies enacted a gradual
wind-down process, which eventually saw them shutting down their
production in the country despite the huge investment they made.
"The first casualty of the gradual wind-down were
explorations. As the war escalated, it was clear to the oil firms that
the country had no future", an energy consultant told LEADERSHIP last
night.
"The companies therefore halted
exploration and only managed to produce from existing oil wells as long
as the hostilities in the battlefields allowed.
"With time the hostilities were so encompassing that even production on existing wells was drastically reduced.
"Nigeria
is currently at the first phase of the gradual wind down process and if
the militancy in the Niger Delta is not halted the second and more
dangerous phase would follow".
Reports in the
last few days indicate that the oil companies have frozen exploration
activities in the region. The search for new oil fields in the region
has since been grounded. No oil reserve has been discovered in the area
in the recent past. The little exploration going on in the country is
in the deep offshore.
An insider said, "Most of the companies are now moving to Angola and exploration for oil in the country is intensifying."
Even
the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is responding
appropriately to the escalating militancy in the Niger Delta. Two years
ago Nigeria's oil quota in the cartel was 2.5 million barrel per day
(2.5mbd). But as militancy shuts out production in the nation's oil
fields the cartel has responded by reducing Nigeria's quota and
allocating it to other countries, where production is not inhibited.
Angola's
production quota in the cartel now hovers around 2.5 mbd while Nigeria
now labours to fill the 1.5mbd grudgingly allocated to it by the cartel.
Industry
watchers contend that the halting of exploration activities in the
Nigerian oil fields is a "dangerous development" because even if the
situation does not deteriorate to the point where production would have
to be frozen, the current trend has drastically reduced the chances of
shoring up Nigeria's proven oil reserves, which was expected to hit the
40 billion barrel mark by the year 2010. This situation is already
creating panic.
Head of media and publicity of
the Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Owei Lakemfa, said: "As you know,
there is crisis in the country in general; with the Niger-Delta issues
there is no how production can continue in the area, and that it is
already affecting everyone in the country, including the government,
the workers and the companies operating in the region.
"The
recent slump in Nigeria's oil output may have been disastrous for
Africa's largest oil producer, but problems could worsen".
source: allafrica.com
Also,
the chairman of the Senate Committee on Sports, Senator Heineken
Lokpobiri, said the crisis would adversely affect the nation's economy.
According to him, "It is obvious that the crisis would affect the
nation because billions of naira are wasted while oil facilities are
being destroyed. And I think what Nigeria should do now is to ensure
that we find a lasting solution to the problems in the Niger Delta,
that has to do with sustainable development.
we are doing today, the 2008 budget for the Niger Delta is simply not
enough and the people are left with so much hopelessness. The situation
is so bad that even we, the lawmakers, can no longer go home"
The lawmaker, who hails from the crisis-ridden
region, also attributed the problem in the Niger Delta to the inability
of Federal Government to release the statutory funds for the region,
stressing that it would further aggravate the problems and crisis in
the region.
In April, striking Exxon Mobil
workers and wave of attacks on oil infrastructure by militant groups
knocked more than half of the nation's quota for OPEC -
2.16-million-barrels-a-day. That contributed to propelling the Nymex
light sweet crude-oil contract above $126.20.
Attacks
have increased significantly in the region in recent weeks and damage
to pipelines has forced Royal Dutch Shell's Nigerian joint venture,
Shell Petroleum Development Corporation, to hold back more than 160,000
barrels a day from its Bonny Light oilfield.
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