Oil Industry in Nigeria

Oil Industry in Nigeria

Introduction

In 1956 Nigeria's oil was discovered which completely transformed the economy of Nigeria. The country is generating huge amount of revenues from the trading of oil. It also has large reserves of natural gas. In September 2004 Nigeria declared as the largest oil producer in “Sub Sahara Africa”. The main source of wealth of Nigeria is the Nigeria Delta comprising of oil producing states approximated population of about 20 million people. Nigeria Delta consists of nine oil producing states. The major conflict in the country is oil industry. The poverty rate in Nigeria is high reflects that the population are particularly poor and they have no idea about the benefits of a natural source which frequently see as a gift of God. By the second half of the 20th century production and exploration of crude oil is continued.

In spite of this continued extraction of oil from the region of Delta the inhabitants of region have been absent and feeling exploited and by the oil companies and federal government. An important awareness moment around the world about the conditions of Nigeria started when Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995 executed a voice about this. The Shell Petroleum Company which is one of the leading companies in oil corporations removed itself from the area due to the protest raised by Ken Saro Wiwa with more fundamental components of the population. The study made by (Ikelegbe, 2005, pp.209-210) stated that the 60% of oil profits draw by the federal government and remaining goes to the MNOCs (multinational oil companies). The below discussion covers the political disturbance in Nigeria due to oil industry and also highlights the role of oil industry in causing problems in the country. In last the study presents some recommendations in order to reduce the conflict and political instability and disturbances.

Discussion

Many studies have been done in order to analyze the impact of oil industry on political disputes of the country. Like the study of (Turshen,2002, pp.152-153 ) reveals that the developing countries dependent on mineral or oil face a high level of civil war in the period of five years as the study is made on the critical analysis of five years period. According to (Reno, W, 2003,pp.3-4) the conflict arises not only from natural resource but it also comes due to appropriation of resources and nature of management that produces conflicts. Actually the economy of politics of resources and rich regions of those resources always fling quite expressively the inconsistency of benefits and power between those who benefit and bear the environmental and social and between those who control and own those resources. The ignorance of appropriation of exploited resources primate oil economy politically and also the sources of minerals in Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, Ecuador, Nigeria and others.

Political Economy of Oil in Nigeria

The minorities of the Delta region of Nigeria has been facing disturbance since 1950. First it was against negligence and the political exclusion by the ethnic majority and furthermore it ...