Nigeria faces an unprecedented energy crisis

Published on: 03/17/2022 – 17:42 A widespread power outage at the start of the week has plunged Nigeria into darkness and residents are struggling to power private generators. With the war in Ukraine, the price of a barrel exploded, causing gasoline shortages that are paralyzing the country’s economy. The bad news fell on Tuesday March 15 at the end of the afternoon. “Due to an outage of the entire power grid, we regret to inform you of supply disruptions”, explains on Twitter one of the main energy suppliers in Nigeria, provoking the anger of the population . The old, another network failure had already plunged the whole of this country of 220 million inhabitants into darkness. If load shedding and other breakdowns are commonplace in Nigeria, the situation seems to have reached a critical level this time. “No fuel, no electricity, how could Nigeria function?” asks a surfer. “And we must continue to work in these horrible conditions, make money and pay for this useless government,” protested another. For several weeks, Nigeria has had to deal with sporadic electricity distribution. The country’s aging infrastructure partly explains these daily tensions on the network. To these structural problems are now added the growing difficulties of the national oil company (NNPC) in supplying the country’s power stations.”The causes of our problems are on the one hand the war in Ukraine, and on the other hand the permanent vandalization of our oil pipelines. Ordinarily, Nigeria produces enough to fill 250 tankers a month, but due to sabotage, only 142 ships are loaded”, explains to RFI, Muhammadu Lawal, member of the board of the NNPC.Monday, an explosion occurred on an oil pipeline operated by the Italian giant Eni in southern Nigeria, causing a reduction in exports and an oil spill. Another incident also attributed to an act of vandalism had taken place a few days earlier. , running the generators is proving more and more complicated. “There has been no power since yesterday and we are running on the generator,” Julius Adewale told AFP in his Lagos bakery. Consequence: “our production cost has increased considerably”. “I buy fuel on the black market. The price is a little higher than before and I have to pass this increase on to my prices. ‘can’t afford it, so I’m losing customers,’ laments Solomon Iroh, a hairdresser interviewed by CGTN Africa. Covid-19 crisis. Several local airlines, such as Air Peace or Dana Air, have thus announced that they have to postpone or cancel flights for lack of kerosene. “The situation is becoming really alarming. The prices of services and products are increasing”, confirms Chinwe Ossundu, the correspondent France 24 in Lagos, which describes the long queues in front of gas stations in the economic capital of the country. Already struggling with inflation exceeding 15%, this energy crisis is beginning to have an impact on the entire economy of the country. A blow for Nigeria, where more than a third of the population lives below the poverty line on less than 1.90 dollars a day. Oil producer but dependent This situation of shortage illustrates the paradox facing the leading producing country oil in Africa. Despite its gigantic reserves of black gold, Nigeria imports more than 90% of its fuel because of almost non-existent refining capacities. “Nigeria is the only member of OPEC to suffer from a lack of refining capacities The use of poor quality fuels is one of the many prices to pay for our dependence on imports,” laments the Nigerian newspaper Vanguard. refined petroleum. However, world prices for black gold have soared since the start of the war in Ukraine. In recent days, the price per barrel seems to be stabilizing around 100 dollars. This increase in the price of oil weighs heavily on Nigeria’s public finances, since the State spends several billion dollars each year in subsidies to keep prices at the pump below those of the market. A whatever the cost which should last at least until the next presidential election scheduled for February 2023.