On October 21 local time, a fuel tanker fully loaded with gasoline overturned in Niger State, Nigeria, due to poor road conditions. Nearby residents disregarding the danger went to scoop oil, and moments later, the tanker exploded, causing a large fire that affected surrounding vehicles and roadside stalls. The explosion has been confirmed to have caused at least 38 deaths and 46 injuries.
And on January 18 this year, near Suleja in Niger State, Nigeria, a tanker carrying about 60,000 liters of gasoline overturned at Diko intersection. After the accident, local residents gathered at the scene to collect the leaking fuel, but the fuel immediately ignited an explosion, resulting in over 100 deaths and 69 injuries, with at least 52 in serious condition.
In these two extremely serious incidents, the crowds scooping oil are described as “ignoring obstruction and rushing forward to抢夺,” the local reactionary government treats the victims as guilty, attributing the accident to the “greed” of the crowd, which is entirely a deliberate attempt to cover up the government’s responsibility. The government blames the incident on the “greed” of the people, but this is a complete lie. The imperialist invaders do not help the colonized and semi-colonized countries develop national industries; they only exploit local people and resources to earn monopoly profits. Nigeria’s reality of poverty and backwardness is undoubtedly the strongest indictment of these monopolist lies.
The oil extraction rights have been handed over to the monopoly capital of imperialist countries, resulting in over 80% of oil production coming from major multinational oil companies like Shell. If Nigeria had not sold off its oil resources extensively, allowing monopolies to plunder the wealth belonging to the Nigerian people, trapping the local population in poverty, how could so many impoverished masses risk their lives to collect leaked crude oil?
In this single-oil economy, Nigeria is merely a raw material producer for imperialist countries and cannot establish an independent industrial system. Even electricity supply is inadequate, with 90 million people without power. Although Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) earns billions of dollars in profit annually, its funds are unclear, and only last year did it promise to “increase transparency.” Nigeria’s domestic refineries are long overdue for repairs; the government claimed to have spent $25 billion to fix the only four refineries, but the effort ended in failure. Nigeria has virtually no refining capacity; refined oil products must be imported at high prices. To earn higher profits, although imported fuel subsidies (which cost the government $10 billion in 2022, over 40% of its total tax revenue) have been provided, a large part of the refined oil is still smuggled to neighboring countries with higher fuel prices.
The Dangote refinery, recently commissioned at a cost of $20 billion, is of little use. It not only purchases local crude oil at international prices but is also limited to 300,000 barrels per day by NNPC (most of the crude oil has already been used by NNPC to repay loans from the African Export-Import Bank), forcing Nigeria to import crude oil from Brazil. According to Kpler data, in July this year, the Dangote crude oil imports reached 590,000 barrels per day, about 60% from the United States and the rest from Nigeria. Therefore, the local people’s costs for purchasing refined oil naturally cannot be reduced, and the Dangote refinery is not a company serving the people; it even dismisses unionized workers, and the national unions have instructed oil company employees to strike to stop crude oil supplies to the Dangote refinery.
The monopoly capital of imperialist countries extracting oil in Nigeria has caused severe environmental damage. Shell, for example, colludes with the Nigerian government to suppress mass movements, displaying extreme reactionism. Although Shell withdrew from onshore operations due to local struggles, it continues to invest heavily in offshore oil and gas projects in Nigeria. After approving a $5 billion investment in the Bonga North oil field last December, it approved another $2 billion natural gas project in October this year [壳牌批准20亿美元尼日利亚海上天然气项目 - 资讯 - 中国化工信息周刊网]. Offshore drilling activity increased from just 8 platforms in 2021 to 46 recently, illustrating the greed of these oil monopolies.
Meanwhile, the monopoly capital of Zhongxiu (Zhongxiu refers to China National Petroleum Corporation, Sinopec, and China National Offshore Oil Corporation) is also not lagging behind, with Nigeria including the RMB in its foreign exchange reserves, loans for natural gas pipelines, and large-scale exports of commodities and capital to Nigeria. The “Three Big Oil” companies also control multiple oil and gas blocks in Nigeria, attempting to make huge profits. As long as imperialist monopoly capital exists in Nigeria, the Nigerian people will never escape the precarious fate of living on the edge.
【旧闻】黑金浸透血和泪，石油风潮鼎沸腾
8 Likes