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Vol 38 No 17

Published 29th August 1997


Nigeria

The oil hostage

The oil business is being held hostage, not by foreign sanctions but by the government

Nigeria's oil industry is beginning to seize up. The state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has received no budget allocations for seven months. Except for a small contribution this month for repairs to the Kaduna refinery, the government has made no funds available to the NNPC, which earns 90 per cent of all foreign exchange, since the end of 1996. The corporation's only revenue comes from the two naira per litre (US$1 = N85) which it receives on retail sales of petrol and diesel. This barely covers wages.

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