It is a chronic disease that threatens to suffocate Nigeria’s economic lifeblood, namely oil.
In the Niger Delta, cradle of black manna, the fever is not abating for the oil industry. Incessant attacks on oil pipelines, large-scale theft of crude oil… The bleeding no longer stops, despite the reforms supposed to put an end to it.
A nightmare that frightens the foreign majors, now on the path to disengagement, our colleagues at Jeune Afrique tell us.
Tired of this climate of permanent insecurity, they are selling off their oil concessions, leaving the field open to national players. It remains to be seen whether these new players will be able to stem the bleeding.
Because the scourge spreads, year after year. In 2022, the volumes of diverted crude have reached a stratospheric level of 400,000 barrels per day, the equivalent of 730 million dollars gone up in smoke!
An abysmal bleeding to which is added the 296 million devoured by the repair of sabotaged pipelines.
Faced with the emergency, the authorities tried to regain control in 2021 with a new oil law. But the remedy is still struggling to produce its effects.
The idea of community funds financed by companies to involve local populations is floundering in disagreements over the amounts and methods of redistribution.
What share really goes to local residents? How to break down operating budgets between extractive and refining activities? Who will decide which projects to finance and the villages concerned? So many thorny questions which call into question the representativeness of future village foundations.
A bitter observation which leaves little hope of stopping the spiral of attacks and sabotage.
In this chaos, it is difficult to imagine that the population would suddenly have any interest in protecting previously looted installations.
In Nigeria, the crisis is brewing underground with oil. In the absence of lasting solutions, the tap could one day close definitively on the country’s main resource. A devastating halt to an already suffocated economy.
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