For several months now, the chronic political instability in
the Niger Delta, the principal area of hydrocarbons exploitation
in Nigeria, the world’s eleventh largest oil producer, has
provided the media with spectacular stories of violence.
Hardly a week goes by without an act of sabotage against an
industrial facility, the kidnapping of an employee of an oil
company (foreign or otherwise), or deadly clashes between
security forces and militants from a complex network of
heavily armed insurgency movements. Each day, tens of
thousands of barrels of oil are stolen, sometimes illegally
refined, and sold on the black market, robbing Nigerians of
considerable revenue. It is estimated that between 100,000
and 500,000 additional barrels of oil per day, depending on
the time period, could be produced if the country were secure.
Before the current global financial crisis hit, the Niger Delta’s
recurrent political problems significantly contributed to the
spike in crude oil prices, in a global energy supply context
that was already problematic due to political tensions in the
Middle East.