N’Delta: Nigeria Loses $58.3bn Revenue in 9yrs
By Chika Amanze-Nwachuku and Fidelia Okwuonu, 10.17.2007
Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer has recorded a revenue loss of about $58.3 in nine years, due to the protracted crisis in the Niger Delta.
Chairman, Niger Delta Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee, Senator David Brigidi, who disclosed this yesterday in a paper, "Locating Peace in the Niger Delta," presented at the 2007 pre-conference workshop organised by the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), stated that the country loses an average of 300,000 barrels per day in oil production since 1999, when violence in the oil-rich region escalated.
D,aily production loss as a result of the militancy, he said, is about $18 million, which translates to an awesome $58.3 billion in nine years.
Lamenting the enormous revenue loss, Brigidi said several multi-national oil companies operating in the region have fled from the on-shore locations, resulting in heavy revenue losses to businesses at the federal and state levels.
Apart from revenue losses, he said thousands of lives had been lost to the persistent crisis and recalled that between May and June 1999 alone, over 200 persons died during a bloody clash between ethnic Ijaw and Itsekiri militias in Delta State, while hundreds were killed and thousands rendered homeless in an inter-ethnic violence which involved Ijaw, Itsekiri, Urhobo and Nigerian security forces also in Delta State.
The crisis, according to him, led to the shut down of about 40 per cent of the country's oil industry for weeks, a development which led to loss of over $500 million by Chevron Nigeria which suffered both production losses and infrastructure damages.
"The cost of this crisis has been colossal in all its ramifications, and we continue to lose as a nation as the crisis remains. The Niger Delta has been an open wound, which has relentlessly weakened our moral standing in the comity of nations, especially since 1995. Whether we like it or not, events of late 1995 bordering on the Ogoni crisis stigmatised Nigeria. The Odi crisis of 2000 similarly had the same effect. Both events unfortunately served to fuel the notion that the only avenue for venting grievance was through violent means.
"It is estimated that Nigeria has lost an average of 300,000 barrels per day in oil production since 1999 to the state of violence and instability in the Niger Delta region,” he said.
This translates to daily production loss of about $18 million translating to an awesome 458.3 billion dollars in nine years. Several multinational oil companies have all but moved out of on-shore locations, resulting in heavy revenue losses to businesses by federal and state governments. All the Niger Delta State governments have colossal revenues to this lingering crisis. To put it mildly, the human cost and the damage to local economies of the region has been mind-boggling.
"There are approximately six million people under the age of 17 in the Niger Delta States who are directly experiencing a prolonged period of concentrated civil disturbances in the most critical formative stages of their lives. the politicization of children and their consequent exposure to violence and the means of violence has been intense in this region and is central to the menace of cultism is the nursery and recruitment grounds for militancy in the region. We are consequently at the risk of losing a generation of youths to mindless violence if we have not already lost them. Our nation is at a cross road, breeding a culture of violence that is fast spreading out of the region to other parts of the country" he said.
He however stated that the solution to Niger Delta problem must be etched in a strategic framework designed to redress years of neglect, give vent to the people's yearning for political representation, address the demand for greater access to resources and focus on a rounded development of the human factor in the region. This he said would require a new strategic approach focusing on confidence building and an all-inclusive dialogue with the people.
Speaking on a topic, "Private-Public Partnership for Peace in the Niger Delta", Managing Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) and Chairman of the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS) Mr. Basil Omiyi noted that the country missed out some $14,4 billion in tax and royalty income to militant insurgency, adding that Shell has shut down production in most of the Western Niger Delta, including the offshore EA Field, shutting in some 477,000 barrels of the oil per day for most of 2006 and this year.
According to him, aside from revenue losses, attacks on flow stations and pipelines have had significant environmental consequences, pointing out that cases abound where oil companies could not secure access to clean up oil spills, repair damaged pipelines or even undertake routine maintenance of facilities.
He also noted that the on going oil and gas projects, including the much needed gas gathering projects are being delayed by the violence and insecurity in the region, which he added, has also led to reduction in the number of skilled contractors willing to work on projects in the region for a reasonable cost.
As a way forward, he canvassed that government at all levels should work together to promote equitable and transparent system of revenue management, as well as sustainable means of livelihood for local communities, through micro-credit and business development. He also advised that all stakeholders, including oil and gas companies and foreign donors must support the implementation of the Niger Delta Master Plan which outlines a plan for economic and social development in the region, to ensure that it delivers real and tangible benefits to the people of the region.
Speaking in the same vein, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State urged that the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as an interventionist organization should play a major role in harnessing the abundant energies most youths of the region are currently wasting on unproductive ventures.
