Middle East & Africa | Missing an open goal

How oil-rich Nigeria failed to profit from an oil boom

Price controls, spluttering production and oil theft are to blame

A member of NNS Delta of the Nigerian Navy forces patrols on an abandoned site of an illegal oil refinery in the Niger Delta region on April 19, 2017 near the city of Warri, Nigeria.NNS Pathfinder of the Nigerian Navy forces crack down on illegal oil refineries in the Niger Delta, the countrys oil heartland. The illicit refineries are just one component of oil theft in Nigeria, a mammoth industry estimated to be worth as much as $8 billion a year, according to a 2013 report by Chatham House, a London think-tank. / AFP PHOTO / STEFAN HEUNIS (Photo credit should read STEFAN HEUNIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Sep 11th 2022|DAKAR

A surge in oil prices can do astonishing things. In Saudi Arabia a futuristic city is planned to rise from the desert. Angola’s long-beleaguered currency has become one of the strongest performers against the greenback. In the Middle East and Central Asia oil exporters are cock-a-hoop. They may pocket an extra $320bn in oil revenues this year. Yet there is a conspicuous absentee from this merry petro-party. The net effect of the high oil price for the country that is usually Africa’s biggest oil producer is “nil or negative”, laments Zainab Ahmed, Nigeria’s minister of finance.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Steal it, burn it, lose it”