Nigeria’s crude oil revenues fell by $702-million in February because of the unrest in the Niger Delta, the hub of the country’s energy industry, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said on Friday.
Nigeria earned $3,177-billion from crude oil sales in February compared to $3,877-billion in January, the bank said in its monthly report.
Crude oil exports dropped from 1,96-million to 1,85-million barrels of oil per day from January to February, the CBN added. ”This translates to a total of 51,8-million barrels sold in the month under review, down from 60,7-million barrels per day in January,” it added.
Since January, separatist guerrillas who claim to represent the interests of the region’s 14-million-strong Ijaw ethnic group have stepped up their attacks on the delta’s oil industry, the biggest in Africa. Militants have killed at least 24 members of the security forces, kidnapped and released 13 western hostages and blown up several oil pipelines.
The delta is a 70 000 square kilometre swathe of swamp and forest on Nigeria’s southern coast, where the Niger river reaches the Atlantic, and is home to several restive minority groups.
Nigeria earns almost $30-billion a year from the network of oil wells dotting the mangrove swamps, but most of the area’s 22-million inhabitants live in poverty in polluted fishing communities and overcrowded cities.
This week President Olusegun Obasanjo unveiled a multi-billion-dollar development plan for the delta during a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja, but the region’s militants have rejected it and threatened more attacks on the oil industry.
On Thursday, they claimed responsibility for a car bomb blast that killed two civilians and injured six more at an army barracks in the oil city of Port Harcourt. — Sapa-AFP