1 September 2006
Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources admits that the ongoing crisis in the country’s turbulent Niger Delta Region may delay the supply of natural gas to Benin, Togo and Ghana through the West Africa Gas Pipeline project (WAGP).
Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Dr. Edmund Daukoru today acknowledged that natural gas may not flow to Ghana, Togo and Benin on schedule through the West Africa Gas Pipeline (WAGP) due to supply disruptions resulting from instability in the Niger Delta Region.
The recent spate of kidnappings of oil workers and attacks on oil installations in the past weeks has brought the situation to a head, reducing output by over a quarter in Nigeria’s major oil-producing region. Advocates in the Niger Delta have long complained that the considerable oil and gas revenues derived from the region have enriched foreign companies and politicians, and that natural resource exploitation has led to serious environmental degradation without tangible development benefits for local communities.
Community groups raised these concerns about the West Africa Gas Pipeline even while the project was under preparation, predicting that until problems of resource inequality and community conflict are addressed in the Niger Delta, the WAGP, and the Ghanaian consumers it supplies, would remain vulnerable to the impacts of conflict in the areas where the natural gas is sourced.
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