With the violence in Nigeria progressively getting worse and worse since 2006, Royal Dutch Shell has slowly been selling their oil blocks away. This past week Shell announced they are ready to sell another four oil blocks, and they would like to do this as soon as possible. Each of these oil blocks are expected to sell for $1 billion, and are expected to close within a few days. Shells decision to sell these four oil blocks was influenced by all the recent violence in the country, which has cut the company's output since 2006. With the oil industry suffering the way it is right now, many companies are eager to try to purchase these oil blocks because many are saying this is their best time to buy. For one of the first times ever, there is a chance that a local Nigerian company could possibly buy and take control of one of the oil blocks. Also in the group of bidders is the Chinese owned company, Addax Petroleum. Each of these oil blocks are located in the western swamps of the Niger Delta, and have been slowly producing less and less barrels of oil daily. Everyone is hoping that when these new companies step in, they can bring production back up to where it used to be.
This relates to class discussion because it demonstrates how Nigeria's internal problems, with religious cleavages and other things, are beginning to affect their global economy. With Shell slowly beginning to move out of Nigeria and establish different oil blocks in other locations, shows the different chances being taken away from Nigeria. Also, with China being one of the top competitors for these oil blocks, shows what we have been discussing in class about the way China does business in Africa. It proves that they do not care about the violence and are taking no actions to stop the violence, but instead go about their own business.
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