Rebirth of England.

Chapter 899 Niger Delta

The attack on the South Mira drilling platform took place in the Niger Delta region, in southern Nigeria, West Africa. It covers an area of ​​3.6 square kilometers and is dotted with lakes, swamps, and abandoned river meanders. It is rich in oil resources, has a hot and humid climate, and has a population of over 100 million. It is the fourth largest delta in the world.

As we all know, Nigeria has rich oil and gas resources, but almost all of Nigeria's oil and gas production comes from the Niger Delta, which is the world's 45th largest oil and gas-rich region, with proven recoverable oil reserves of 2.2 billion tons, accounting for 2.7% of the world's proven oil reserves, and proven recoverable natural gas reserves of 1.4 trillion cubic meters, accounting for % of the world's proven natural gas reserves.

Shell occupies an important position in Nigeria's domestic oil industry. For example, the South Mira drilling platform that was attacked this time was hired by Shell.

The reason is that Shell was the first company to discover and develop Nigeria's oil resources, and its oil extraction activities in Nigeria can be traced back to the colonial period.

In 1937, Shell was granted permission to explore for crude oil in Nigeria, becoming the first oil company to enter Nigeria.

In 1956, Shell discovered oil in the Niger Delta in Nigeria and began commercial production in 1958, producing 6000 barrels per day.

With Nigeria's independence in 1960, Shell became more deeply involved in Nigeria's oil field drilling, pipeline laying, refinery construction and port facility development.

At the same time, large European oil companies such as Total and Elf have also entered Nigeria.

After the 20s, Shell's business in Nigeria further expanded. Today, Shell operates more than 70 drilling wells, 1000 flow stations and more than 87 kilometers of oil pipelines in the Niger Delta in Nigeria, with a daily oil production capacity of more than 6000 million barrels.

Shell plays a very important role in Nigeria.

In the field of oil development, Shell, as the earliest developer, has long held a monopoly position.

Before 1979, in the Niger Delta region, which has the highest oil reserves, Shell's oil production accounted for more than half of the region's total production, exceeding the combined production of 10 major oil companies including Mobil and Elf.

In 1977, the Nigerian government established the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) in the hope of nationalizing the oil industry by acquiring shares.

So in 1979, the nationalized NNPC formed a joint venture with Shell - Shell Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) holds a 55% stake, Shell holds a 30% stake, and other oil companies share the remaining 15%.

In terms of shares, Shell is in an absolute dominant position compared to other foreign oil companies; in terms of management structure, although the major shareholder of Shell Nigeria Petroleum Development Company is the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, it is still an overseas subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, and is still operated by Shell, and all previous general managers have been Shell personnel.

It can be seen that the company is still dominated by foreign capital represented by Shell.

After the establishment of the joint venture, Shell began to develop Nigeria's deepwater oil fields - 38% of the entire Niger Delta region is located on land, 21% is on the continental shelf, and 41% is in the deep sea.

However, the Niger Delta region is not so peaceful. There are many anti-government armed forces, the most important of which is the "Niger Delta Liberation Movement."

They frequently attack oil companies and take hostages.

According to statistics, more than 2006 foreigners have been kidnapped in the area since 300.

The anti-government armed forces in the Niger Delta region are slightly different from those in other countries. They can be called "oil and gas parasitic" anti-government armed forces.

The emergence of anti-government armed forces in the Niger Delta region has a specific socio-economic background. The economic contradictions, ethnic conflicts and generational conflicts in this oil and gas producing area are intertwined, triggering complex conflicts between the government, companies and local people. The failure of peaceful resistance ultimately led the people to choose armed struggle to fight for their own interests.

In 1914, the British colonial and protectorate government of Nigeria promulgated the Mineral Act, which stipulated that all types of mineral resources belonged to local governments, and the proceeds would naturally be used for local social development.

After Nigeria's independence in 1960, successive federal governments have been committed to controlling oil and gas revenues as much as possible from the perspective of political integration and economic coordination, and have formulated a new Petroleum Act accordingly.

According to the bill, the previous principle of local autonomy was abolished, all oil and gas resources belonged to the federal government, and the oil and gas revenues from oil and gas producing areas were distributed by the federal government through central funds.

自此，油气产区可获得的税收收益比例逐年锐减，由1953年的100%逐步减至1984年的1.5%，到1992年才小幅增加到3%。

That is, local governments in oil and gas producing areas benefit less directly from oil and gas revenues.

In addition, although the federal government established a development derivative fund for the oil-producing areas from its oil and gas taxes in 1992, the fund's management organizations, the Oil and Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), are plagued by corruption and bureaucracy, and their role in promoting economic and social development in the delta region is very limited.

Since the oil and gas industry is obviously technology- and capital-intensive, it does not drive enough employment in the resource-rich areas and has limited contribution to the development of local communities. In this case, the profit distribution share of oil and gas development is reduced to a minimum, which means that the delta region can neither benefit from the development of the oil and gas industry nor lose the start-up capital necessary to develop other industries.

While the distribution of benefits has been reduced, the huge environmental costs generated by the development of the oil and gas industry have also harmed the interests of local people.

This "negative asset" is mainly reflected in soil, water and air pollution.

According to statistics, in the half century before 2013, there were more than 6000 oil spills in the delta region, resulting in the leakage of more than 150 million barrels of oil and gas, polluting the local soil and water sources; the random laying of a large number of oil pipelines changed the original course of rivers and destroyed fish spawning grounds; and various types of associated gases vented and burned during oil and gas extraction caused serious pollution to the atmosphere in the region.

The Niger Delta has become one of the most polluted areas in the world. Not only has the health of residents been damaged, but the local traditional fisheries and agriculture have also suffered a devastating blow, seriously affecting the normal lives of local residents.

However, in order to ensure the continued growth of oil and gas revenues, the Nigerian federal government has long ignored environmental issues in the delta region.

The Petroleum Act of 1969 exempted oil and gas companies from their obligations to protect the local environment; the Land Use Act of 1978 stipulated that land not yet transferred to the federal government belonged to the governor (appointed by the central government at the time). From then on, oil and gas companies could drill at will without consulting local communities, and local communities lost the right to bargain with oil and gas companies and obtain environmental compensation.

Whether in the distribution of benefits from oil and gas resources or in the sharing of costs of oil and gas resources, the Nigerian federal government has long ignored the interests of the people in the delta region.

This energy-rich area has therefore become the poorest place in Nigeria.

According to incomplete statistics, by the end of the 20th century, the poverty rate in this region was as high as 74.8%.

73% of the people lack safe drinking water, 70% of households lack electricity, most communities lack educational facilities, the enrollment rate of primary school-age children is less than 40%, and only 2% of the local population has access to basic medical care. The average life expectancy of local residents is only 46.8 years, and the mortality rate of children under 5 years old is as high as 20%.

By 1999, when the Abubakan military government returned power to the people, the Nigerian federal government could no longer ignore the dire socio-economic conditions in the delta region.

In order to quell the growing public discontent, the government increased the proportion of energy revenue that could be obtained in oil and gas producing areas to 13%. However, this was still not enough to pay for the price paid by the people in the delta region over the past half century. Therefore, the public generally believed that this proportion should be increased to between 25% and 50%.

The federal government's limited concessions still fail to match the people's demands for interests, and dissatisfaction is widespread.

A 2005 survey showed that more than half of Delta residents believed the federal government was to blame for hindering local development.

Another survey in 2007 showed that as many as 36.23% of the people were dissatisfied and expressed their willingness to participate in or support armed resistance against the government.

The evolution of anti-government armed forces in the Niger Delta region, from small-scale at the beginning to large-scale organized ones later, is also related to the political situation in Nigeria.

In 1999, the Nigerian military government returned power to the people and Nigeria restarted its democratization process.

However, due to the imperfect corresponding regulatory system, a large number of frauds occurred in Nigeria's 2003 elections.

In order to win elections, a few politicians have resorted to hiring and arming militants to form armed gangs loyal to themselves and force local communities to vote for them.

Among them, the "Niger Delta People's Volunteer Army" was initially supported by Rivers State Governor Peter Odili.

After the election, in order to prevent the organization from growing in power, Odili supported the "Niger Delta Militia" to confront it and check and balance each other.

Finally, the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Army declared "all-out war" with the government in September 2004, demanding that all oil and gas companies immediately cease operations and leave the delta. At the same time, it launched large-scale sabotage operations against oil and gas production facilities in the delta, which had a huge impact on the Nigerian and even global crude oil markets.

As the clearing operation was ineffective, the Obasanjo government had to seek a solution to the problem through negotiations.

Finally, the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Army reached a ceasefire agreement with the government in October 2004.

The government promised to grant amnesty and jobs to the militants and to buy back their weapons at a price of $1800 per piece, in exchange for the latter promising to stop their confrontation with the government.

However, the ceasefire agreement only temporarily quelled armed conflict in the delta region.

On the one hand, the amnesty program failed to effectively help the militants return to society, and various conflicts caused by oil and gas resource development have not been completely resolved; on the other hand, the government's "purchase price" for weapons is much higher than the "market price", which objectively helps the militants upgrade their armaments.

In September 2005, Asari Dokubo, former leader of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Army, was arrested by the government on charges of splitting the country, triggering a strong backlash in society.

In January 2006, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta was established. In the following six months, it launched nearly 1 attacks on oil and gas companies, causing economic losses of more than US$6 billion (accounting for 20% of Nigeria's total oil and gas revenue that year) and leading to the large-scale withdrawal of international oil and gas companies.

Since then, anti-government armed groups such as the "Niger Delta Liberation Army" and the "November 1895 Movement" have been established one after another, and they have engaged in fierce competition with the government or with each other over oil and gas resources.

By 2009, Nigeria's oil and gas exports had fallen by another 2006% compared to 38.5.

As a company with significant oil and gas interests in the Niger Delta, Shell has had to ensure the safety of its oil fields in a variety of ways over the years, including paying "protection fees" to these anti-government armed forces on a regular basis, investing in improving the government's armed forces, hiring and strengthening its own security forces, etc.

However, with the recent intensification of attacks, Shell finally hired the Protector Military Services, headquartered in Kolomango, to ensure the security of some of their oil fields.

This is the origin of the previous scene. Whether it is the security personnel on the oil platform or the supporting armed helicopters, they all belong to the Protector Military Service Company.

Prior to this, the Protector Military Services Company exported a large number of security personnel to London to carry out "labor export" for the G4S Group and assist in the security work of the London Olympics.

After the Olympics, most of these personnel returned to Colo - because the United States began to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, and accordingly, the demand for military contractors in these places was decreasing.

This has forced the Protector Military Services to expand its business, including providing security for Nigerian oil companies.

Currently, the Protector Military Services Company has built a security base in the Niger Delta region, where more than 1000 armed security personnel and corresponding weapons and equipment have been deployed.

Although the security quotation from Protector Military Services was higher than that of Shell’s previous security company, their strength was still very satisfactory to the other party.

At the same time, since the beginning of the Niger Delta conflict, as the security situation has continued to deteriorate, many international oil companies have intended to withdraw their investments from Nigeria, including large oil companies such as Total and ENI.

The United Energy Group is also evaluating the feasibility of taking over the oil shares of these oil companies in Nigeria. After all, the fundamental contradictions in the Niger Delta region have not been resolved. Even if tough measures are used to suppress the anti-government forces, as long as the distribution of interests is not recognized by the local people in the delta, the anti-government forces will still have a breeding ground for survival.

But at least from now on, United Energy Group and Shell have also begun to cooperate - they have cooperated with Kolo Energy and Chemical Group under the West African Group to invest in a refining base in a petrochemical industrial base about 90 kilometers away from Kololoti Port. Part of the crude oil produced in Nigeria will be processed here and then sold to the world.

The total investment of this refining and chemical base is more than 150 billion US dollars, including two refineries and a chemical plant. Currently, this base in Kolo has become the largest petrochemical base in West Africa. And because Loti has a relevant petrochemical college, coupled with years of training, Kolo has also been able to provide these petrochemical plants with mature industrial workers and front-line technicians.

Of course, Nigeria is not without its own refining bases, but Nigeria's daily crude oil production was close to a historical high of 250 million barrels. However, due to aging equipment, theft and sabotage, current production is less than 200 million barrels.

Similarly, due to poor management, the four state-owned refineries in Nigeria have refining output far below their designed capacity of 44.5 barrels per day.

Therefore, the production capacity of Nigeria's own refineries is simply unable to absorb their oil production, and most of their crude oil production is directly exported.

The crude oil is now transported to the petrochemical base in Kolo for refining. The distance is not far, which can be said to be very convenient.