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Superpower Games in Nigeria |
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China and India are building oil refineries in Nigeria, Africa’s premier oil producer:
“What we have agreed with the Chinese is that we will now have a greenfield refinery located in the Niger delta,” head of Nigeria’s Department of Petroleum Resources, Tony Chukwuemeke, said in the federal capital Abuja.
Three prominent Chinese companies operating in Nigeria — CNPC, Sinopec and CNOOC — “have together committed themselves to make available a refinery” in the southern delta region, Chukwuemeke said.
“I cannot tell you its capacity but it’s in the neighbourhood of 450,000 barrels per day,” he said. “We are just beginning a discussion.”
Chukwuemeke said Nigeria has a similar cooperation agreement with India to establish another export-oriented refinery.
Indian oil and gas group ONGC, teamed with steel giant Mittal, “have some oil blocks from Nigeria in the deep offshore and for that they have committed to build a refinery in Nigeria,” Chukwuemeka said.
“Why will the Indians, renowned for having the best refinery in the world, not be happy to replicate the same thing here rather than asking us to give them crude oil to take to India to refine there?” Chukwuemeka said.
Nigeria currently has four refineries which recently resumed operations after a year of closure, but are still inadequate to meet the demands of the domestic market.
The Asian superpowers may be in for a rough ride. Given political instability in the oil-rich Niger Delta, repeated kidnappings of oil company personnel by militants, and frequent explosions of pipelines when locals siphon oil from them, doing business there means taking some real risks.
On the other hand, China and India are looking to their own future energy needs in a more sophisticated way than we are. If oil remains the main game in town over the next few decades, Nigeria’s importance (along with other African oil producers like Angola) will only increase. If the Asian superpowers can get their foot in the door, build good will, and succeed where others are failing, they will position themselves quite well to capitalize on expanded production in an age of scarcity.
Guess who loses in that equation?
But don’t worry, we’re busier pointing fingers at China (and making noise about not signing onto commitments to fight global warming until they do) than we are searching for alternative energy. We can’t just try to win the oil game - we have to change the rules of the energy game as a whole. Otherwise we’re doomed to lose, and lose big.
