Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Boko Haram and the risks for Nigeria's Oil Industry

Much has been said about Boko Haram´s terrorist actions against christian population in Nigeria, which in the past months have been highly frequent, and more so with the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls which has raised a global outcry and a tremendous wake up call to the international community to seriously face this treacherous terrorist group that terribly resembles something like Al Qaeda and more recently the Al Shabaab in Kenya terrorist action at the Westgate mall in 2013, which at the same time shows how militant and extremist islam is expanding and growing in Africa. This adds up to the existence of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Delta of the Niger which has been until recently a pain for the nigerian oil industry, shutting down most of its oil production, sabotaging oil facilities, kidnapping foreing companies personnel mostly from SHELL and ENI, forcing them to abandon most of their operations in the country, causing a tremendous and irreversible damage to nigerian economy. Now with the upsurging of BOKO HARAM, who already threatened to go after oil facilities in Nigeria after these schoolgirls abduction, security and political risks multiply for the oil industry in the african country, which once was the first oil producer in the continent, but no longer can retain this position, and causing uncertainty for the future of Nigeria. And the resurgence of militant and political islam in Africa could add up the intense clash for natural resources in the african continent, the reinforcement of the AFRICOM by Washington, and the geopolitical positioning by other foreign powers with strong economic interests in the zone such as Russia and China. So BOKO HARAM i currently the biggest threat and risk for the Nigerian oil industry. 







No comments:

Post a Comment

test