Nigeria loses $24bn oil revenue in 2008

INDICATIONS are that Nigeria’s unrest could worsen after the country lost at least $23.7 billion to oil theft and sabotage in the first nine months of 2008, a presidential committee report says.

There are also indications that given current crude oil prices, losses to crude oil shut- in and resulting theft could amount to $19.34 billion (about N2.8 trillion) in 2009.
Ledum Mitee, chairman of the committee, said the figure shows that “if we were to buy peace, we would be spending less than what we are losing in the crisis.”

The November report by the Niger-Delta Technical Committee, which was seen by Dow Jones, said attacks on installations resulted “in shutdowns and spillages with consequent losses in revenue estimated at about $20.7 billion.”

The estimates uses an average of 700,000 barrels a day lost during the months from January to September multiplied by each month’s average Nigerian crude price.
The report added that “this amount [of $20.7 billion] is exclusive of another estimated $3 billion lost to oil bunkering [theft] over the first seven months of this year alone.”
Mitee, who is a political leader in Niger-Delta’s Ogoniland, confirmed the numbers disclosed in the report.
The report also said that “there are unaccounted costs in human misery, with about 1,000 persons killed within the same period and another 300 taken as hostages.”

The committee was set up on December 1 under the auspices of Nigeria President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to resolve the crisis of the Niger-Delta but hasn’t been made public.
Militants’ attacks and crude theft since 2006 have kept more than 500,000 barrels a day shut down in Nigeria, which is vying with Angola for the title of Africa’s top oil producer.
The report proposes an amnesty for militants if they are willing to disarm and said the committee’s work had attracted interest from militants and communities.

But “judging by the level of angst we perceive, we share the views of those who believe that there is a looming danger that the present Niger- Delta crisis could easily escalate,” the report said.
Based on the numbers disclosed, “the cost of failure is too enormous to contemplate,” the report added. 
2009 scenario:

Checks revealed that even at a gross under-estimate of one million barrels shut-in resulting from both militants’ inspired violence and technical limitations, as well as a prevailing market price of $52 per barrel, Nigeria’s potential daily loss could be as high as $52 million.
The potential loss amounts to $1.612 billion per month and a whooping $19.344 billion per annum or N2.8 trillion. However, with indications that crude oil prices may rise even further in the course of the year, the gross potential loss is anybiody’s guess.


GMD NNPC Mr. M.S Barkindo

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Posted: at 14-04-2009 09:04 AM (16 years ago) | Gistmaniac

The problem of Nigeria is that they have made only one side of the energy sector so glarious that when it is having a problem it becomes so big a problem. The oil sector has been made so glaring that other sectors have been neglected. Come to think of it, how do nations without oil survive? Countries like France without Oil is  doing better than Nigeria with all our revenue from oil put together.

Its high time we tap other sources of energy also in the North, like minerals and even food energy like agricultural produce and make them earn foreign exchange very close or more than oil and lets see if the miscreant in the Niger Delta will move up north.

Its high time Nigeria learn her lessons on dwelling on one sector of economy for revenue, a whooping $24 billion revenue lossed in 2008 when we have over 100 milllion Nigerians living below poverty level. This tells us of gross mismanagement by our managers in the oil and gas sector and our leaders during this period.

I believe the problem of militancy in the Niger Delta can be solved before it escalates into something else, just like the new one (kidnapping and assanitation). The Vice-President who is a true Ijaw son and a Niger Deltan should call for a Niger Delta Reconciliation Conference involving only the Niger Deltans, everybody or group represented,including the militants and their factions, to discuss & resolve the issue of gross neglect of the Niger Delta and plans or map for inprovement of the same. At this forum, the issue of militancy,hostage taking can be addressed and a way forward benefial to all parties be constructed and then taken to the National Assembly for their endorsement,then we can put a lasting end to crisis in the NIger Delta.

Posted: at 14-04-2009 12:08 PM (16 years ago) | Newbie

amen

Posted: at 15-04-2009 02:46 PM (16 years ago) | Gistmaniac

dear, u can make the best out of nothing, most of these men are not finding it easy, thank God that most of us are still surviving among all these odds, its not really easy for our parents and i, but then G od will liberate us one day. The children of God are praying seriously about that and i know dat God will ans one day

Posted: at 17-04-2009 10:05 AM (16 years ago) | Gistmaniac