Throughout the spring and summer of 2018, the Nigerian petroleum industry has suffered major production and export complications, exacerbated by an atmosphere of political instability. This could destabilize the African nation, which relies on oil to fuel its economic growth, and could intensify already present supply concerns in the global oil market.
In May 2018, the Nigerian petroleum industry underwent production complications as outages at key pipelines supplying Forcados and Bonny Light grade crudes were out of commission, likely from sabotage. This, in conjunction with the closure of the leaking Trans-Forcados pipeline, led to further delays and an accumulation of unsold crude.
While oil flows from Nigeria have begun to recover since 2016, when the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), and other insurgency groups shut down Nigeria’s production, security threats have continued. A Shell representative for its Nigeria operations recently stated “Security in parts of the Niger Delta remains a major concern.”
A resurrection of the wave of violence in 2016, which pushed the Nigerian economy into a recession from which it has yet to fully recover, would be devastating for the nation and with the Nigerian presidential election upcoming in February 2019, many have speculated whether NDA and other groups will renew their campaign of violence and vandalism.
