Oil Boom Research Articles

National Insecurity and the Challenges of Food Security in Nigeria

Nigeria has been overly dependent on oil for its foreign exchange earnings and government revenue since the oil boom of the 1970s. Prior to this period, the country was reasonably self-sufficient in food production and carved a respectable niche for itself as a major exporter of several cash crops. However, as agriculture lost its primacy to oil, it went into steady decline due to neglect by successive governments. The neglect led to mass abandonment of farms resulting in extreme peasantization of the sector. A related negative fallout was Nigeria’s transition from food self-sufficiency to food-dependency and attendant massive importation to bridge food gaps. However, efforts are being made by the government to reposition the agricultural sector to boost its productive capacity and make it competitive. The major task of this study is to evaluate Nigeria’s quest to achieve food security against the backdrop of national insecurity. Considering the categorization of Nigeria as food insecure, the study examines the interconnection between national insecurity and food production as a prelude to the actualization of food security. The study relies on primary and secondary data to evaluate the feasibility of food security in the face of sustained insecurity across the country. The study finds that the achievement of food security would be impossible if the insecurity that pervades and envelopes farming communities is not resolved.

State as Illusion?

Abstract Moral Economies of Corruption is an important intervention, and Steven Pierce provides an alternative way of viewing the long history of anticorruption programs in Nigeria. As Michael J. Watts' contribution discusses, there are a number of dangers that lurk in the discursive and performative orientation of the book. Sometimes the shifting character of what constitutes corruption produces less a systematic account of corruption than a history of shifting political cultures (much of which has, of course, been covered in a variety of ways by scholars of Nigeria). But if the purpose is to see the work that corruption undertakes, then it would also require a careful and granular accounting of the shifting pacts, coalitions, and political cartels linking the business world, the security forces, and the vast fiscal federalism composed of thirty-six states and seven-hundred-odd local government councils covering the last seven decades. The political settlements that have arisen through different conjunctures and across the turbulent history of oil busts and booms need to be clearly explicated if both state effects and the political work of corruption claims are to be fully realized.

Experimental study on containment of moderate-viscous oil by floating boom subject to waves and currents

It is necessary to comprehensively understand the hydro-dynamic behavior of spilled oil contained by the floating oil boom, especially for emergency response after an oil spill accident. In the present study, the profile evolution process and principal containment failure mechanism of moderate-viscous oil in wave-current coupling condition are experimentally investigated by considering the effects of the oil viscosity and the spilled volume as well as the boom characteristics of material stiffness, skirt length and buoyancy-weight ratio. A series of empirical formulae in terms of slick length, peak thickness as well vortex scale near the boom, initial failure velocity and loss rate of spilled oil considering the oil properties, the spilled volumes and boom characteristics are proposed using a non-linear global stepwise regression method, namely evolutionary polynomial regression technique with multi-objective genetic algorithm. In addition, protective measures are proposed to reduce the loss of oil spill.

The politics of water security in southern Saskatchewan

This paper examines long‐term water and resource management in Saskatchewan. Agriculture has long sustained Saskatchewan's economy, but the province experienced a resource boom in oil and potash in the 2008–2015 time period. What potential water‐related risks are posed by oil and potash? And is the province able to balance the short‐term economic gains of these developments with the long‐term goal of water security? The research is based on interviews with policy elites in the province of Saskatchewan and argues that four factors explain why the government continues to favour industry over water security: low‐issue salience, economic and political interest, ideology, and political culture.

An Examination of Capitalism and the Fate of Nigeria’s Economy from the Point of View of Practical Morality

Following the oil boom of 1970s, Nigeria has experienced a tremendous change in its economy. This occurred as a significant increase in the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. Rapid industrialization that took place mainly in the cities of Nigeria brought along with it a special kind of social movement that involved large amount of people moving away from the rural areas to the urban areas in search of jobs and other opportunities. As a consequent, money became the only valuable thing and the government started rapid privatization of the economy; and as a result, the economy became capitalist based. This paper therefore, is an attempt to explore the moral implications that the growing free market (capitalism) has on Nigerian economy/or the people at large. Using the prescriptive method of practical ethics, and going through analysis and evaluation, the paper suggests that Nigerian government should adopt an economic model that will be in consonance with the common good!

Unlocking Liquidity in Nigeria

We lay out what Nigeria could do to get the economic, fiscal, and financial narratives back to positive. It is indeed very surprising how Nigeria’s impressively positive economic narrative from 1999 to 2014 has given way to an unflattering post-2014 narrative in which the economic terrain is about recession, inflation, unemployment, poverty, restiveness, and insecurity; the financial terrain is about foreign exchange rationing, devaluation, multiple exchange rates, low loan-deposit ratio, and high interest rates; while the fiscal terrain is about low revenue, low capital spending, large deficits, high debt service, rising debt, and concerns about solvency/bankruptcy. With huge windfalls from the commodity price surge from 1999 to 2014, Nigeria enjoyed economic expansion- growth accelerated and commercial services, led by telecommunications and information services, outgrew agriculture and oil- that saw Nigeria’s rank rise phenomenally from the 52nd to 22nd economy in the world; financial expansion- deepening of banks, bonds and equity markets, as well as government revenue and spending; and stability- single digit inflation and interest rates, and a strong exchange rate; and, a marked reduction in misery- falling unemployment and poverty rates. With shortfalls replacing windfalls since the crash of commodity prices in July 2014, Nigeria’s economy has endured economic contraction- growth reversal, recession, and a sluggish recovery to now rank as 30th economy in the world; financial contraction- especially bank deposits, equity market capitalization, and foreign exchange supply, as well as government revenue and spending, and instability- the Naira lost about two thirds of its value against US dollar, while inflation and interest rates jumped into double digits; with the growing misery reflected in growing number of unemployed, poor, and disenchanted. We present data that reveals that the common thread between the two eras is the quantum of external liquidity at the country’s disposal. External liquidity surge from windfalls fuelled the era of expansion and stability, just as external liquidity shortages from shortfalls inflicted contraction and instability. We show that unfolding global realities now mean that Nigeria could easily adopt policies to raise external liquidity thresholds enough to switch from contraction to expansion. Global liquidity glut has seen a doubling of long-term capital inflows to developing countries in the last decade and Nigeria is very well-placed to strategically reposition itself to get a fair share of that. Despite negative external income shock, domestically, Nigeria remains prodigiously asset rich. Nigeria’s large population spread in scores of urban centres and past oil booms combine to bequeath her with valuable public assets. However, while Nigeria’s economic, fiscal and financial struggles resulting from the decline in income have been conspicuous in news headlines, the solutions that the value of assets owned by Nigeria could unleash have been less so. We draw attention to the hidden value in vast assets owned by Nigeria, make a case for unlocking massive domestic and external liquidity required to arrest the economic, fiscal and financial crisis from them, and articulate four ways of doing so. We show that Nigeria could adopt the following options to raise domestic and external liquidity thresholds: (i.) Securitize equity holdings in NLNG and other oil and gas Joint Ventures to shore up foreign reserve threshold, while giving Nigerians at home and in diaspora opportunities to invest in the assets and earn some of the dividends. (ii.) Privatize to attract brownfield FDI by converting all wholly owned corporate assets to securitizable Joint Ventures stakes in which government owns up to 49 percent and foreign investors own up to 51 percent. (iii.) Liberalize to attract greenfield FDI by breaking government monopoly in all infrastructure sectors to encourage entry of foreign investors who could operate in parallel to the Joint Ventures. (iv.) Commercialize idle or under-utilized state-owned lands and built structures by relocating uneconomic activities from prime locations and repurposing them for leasing to open new streams of non-tax revenue. Doing these will change Nigeria’s economic, fiscal and financial narratives by unlocking the liquidity Nigeria needs to strengthen the Naira, rejuvenate fiscal, financial and foreign exchange streams, rebuild infrastructure, diversify and accelerate growth, eradicate poverty and unemployment, and lay the foundations for shared prosperity. Leading developing countries adopt different combinations of these four options to fuel their transformation.

A Critique of the Architecture of Faculty of Science Complex, University of Lagos, Nigeria

Architectural criticism can be carried out using three distinct methods. These are descriptive, normative, and interpretive evaluations. Descriptive evaluation gives in-depth graphical and verbal expressions of pieces of architecture, thereby, ensuring in depth understanding of the work. The paper critiques the architecture of Faculty of Science Complex of the University of Lagos in order to provide intellectual and unbiased understanding of the design and architecture so as to make it a reference/study material which could influence future designs. It was built during the oil boom (1971-1977) by Godwin and Hopwood Architects. The complex can be classified as an international style, mostly related to modern architecture. This paper describes the building form, the building conditions, basic elements and sensory elements using the principles discussed in “Analyzing Architecture” by Simon Unwin. Findings reveal that a pleasing aesthetics of the design were achieved using the principles of orthodox modernism. However the present conditions of the building distorts the innovative facade of the building, thereby reducing the original science behind the orientation and elements of the building which were consciously applied in order to realise maximum energy savings and occupant comfort. Keywords : criticism, architecture, faculty of science, University of Lagos DOI : 10.7176/ADS/77-07 Publication date :October 31 st 2019

Urban migration and housing during resource booms: The case of Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana

This paper investigates the relationship between urban migration and housing in the context of an emergent oil boom in Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana. The paper responds to the relative lack of research on resource boom-driven urbanization, particularly in Africa, and on the way in which urban migration shapes, and is shaped by, housing conditions. The paper analyzes the relationship between housing conditions and urban migrants' choice of residential locations. Drawing on both qualitative and quantitative analysis of data from 322 surveys in two neighborhoods of Sekondi-Takoradi, the paper draws three primary conclusions. First, migrants' choices regarding where they live are premised on neighborhood housing conditions. Second, most migrants are urban-urban migrants which means that the predominant theories of urban growth are poorly equipped to address the urban transformation occurring in Sekondi-Takoradi. Finally, migrants’ housing choices have considerable urban form implications, promoting in different contexts both urban densification and urban sprawl. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings in the Ghanaian and wider African contexts.

Does an oil boom promote firms’ R&D expenditure? Evidence from Ecuador

ObjetivoO objetivo deste artigo é examinar como a fase de expansão de um ciclo de negócios impulsionada por um choque exógeno de preços de commodities (petróleo) afeta os gastos com P and D entre as empresas equatorianas.Design/metodologia/abordagemUtilizando duas rodadas da Pesquisa Nacional Equatoriana de Atividades de Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (ACTI 2012 and 2015) e um conjunto de dados sobre o valor agregado bruto (VAB) por indústria, aplicamos um modelo de correção de amostra aplicado a um painel de 1.023 empresas de 2009 a 2014.ResultadosAo decidir investir ou não em P and D, quanto maior o VAB de uma indústria, menor a probabilidade prevista que as empresas dessa indústria investiriam. Além disso, os investimentos em P and D não são pró-cíclicos, e há evidências marginais de que eles podem realmente ser contracíclicos. Essas descobertas são consistentes com Schumpeter (1939) e Ouyang (2011) e são provavelmente devidas a um maior custo de oportunidade de investimento em P and D durante o boom do petróleo.Originalidade/valorEm nosso estudo, examinamos um período de expansão e não um ciclo completo de negócios. Esse boom é impulsionado por um choque de petróleo exógeno, diferenciando-se de grande parte da literatura atual, que se concentra em ciclos de negócios impulsionados endogenamente. O artigo examina como o choque do petróleo impactou diversas indústrias, e não apenas as extrativistas. Além disso, nosso trabalho contribui para a escassa literatura em torno de P and D e ciclos de negócios na América Latina.

Does the twin growth catalyst of oil rent seeking and agriculture exhibit complementary or substitute role? New perspective from a West African country

Over the last 3 decades, oil rent seeking has emerged to be a key driver of most economies around the globe. Prior to the oil boom, agriculture remain main stay of most economies especially developing economies. This present study seeks to revisit the contribution of both oil and agriculture sector in Nigeria by augmenting the neoclassical growth model by the inclusion of agriculture and oil rent as growth drivers. To do this, recent time series data from 1990 to 2017 is employed. This study adopts the use of contemporary econometrics test to investigate the theme holistically. First, stationarity test was conducted with a battery of both stationarity and unit root tests. Subsequently, Pesaran’s auto regressive distributed lag bounds testing traces long-run equilibrium relationship between agriculture, oil rent, capital, labor and economic growth over the sampled period. Empirical piece of results validate the agriculture induced economic growth hypothesis, which aligns with the physiocracy school of thoughts ideology. This is against previous study; the resource curse hypothesis was not validated for this current study. Our study results show statistical significant relationship in both long- and short-run between oil rent and economic growth. These outcomes are quite revealing for decision makers and stakeholders since both sector contributes to economic growth. Based on these results, policy mix strategies were suggested in the course of the main text. Among such policies are reinforcing government and private sector participation in both sector given they show complementary role and not substitute to economic output.

Who benefits from local oil and gas employment? Labor market composition in the oil and gas industry in Texas and the rest of the United States

This paper examines local labor market outcomes from an oil and gas boom. We examine two main outcomes; the probability of employment and the log wages of workers employed outside the oil and gas industry for Texas and the rest of the United States across gender, race, and ethnicity. We find that men and women gain employment in the oil and gas industry during booms, but such gains are much larger for men and are largest for black and Hispanic men. We also find positive income spillovers for workers in other industries that are similar in magnitude across demographic groups.

Accessing SDG Information in Nigeria: the Place of Collaboration

AbstractWith the adoption of the new 17 SMART Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), access to government information becomes essential for these goals to be realised. This view was corroborated by IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) at its 2015 Cape Town Declaration. In Nigeria, the drastic reduction in the revenue accruable to the government following the sharp decline in the price of crude oil and the subsequent impact on the nation's economy have made it imperative for citizens of the country to insist on transparency and accountability regarding the activities of the government. Otherwise, the SDGs could end up like the much-talked-about MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) whose records were unimpressive despite the oil boom of that era. Public libraries could serve as useful channels for providing government information to citizens. However, their managers lack the necessary technical skills. This article considers how public libraries in Nigeria could provide access to government information for its users. This study is based on existing literature, international binding documents and observations, as well as drawing on the wealth of experience of the researchers themselves and their interactions with public librarians. It is recommended that the scope of the curricula of library schools in Nigeria be broadened to include the mandatory teaching of management of government information to budding librarians. Also, there should be collaboration between public librarians and law librarians. Such collaboration would help provide more access to government information for the citizens of Nigeria. Law librarians could also benefit from the collaboration and devise better skills to help improve their services to users.

How Local Economic Conditions Affect School Finances, Teacher Quality, and Student Achievement: Evidence from the Texas Shale Boom

AbstractWhether improved local economic conditions lead to better student outcomes is theoretically ambiguous and will depend on how schools use additional revenues and how students and teachers respond to rising private sector wages. The Texas boom in shale oil and gas drilling, with its large and localized effects on wages and the tax base, provides a unique opportunity to address this question that spans the areas of education, labor markets, and public finance. An empirical approach using variation in shale geology across school districts shows that the boom reduced test scores and student attendance, despite tripling the local tax base and creating a revenue windfall. Schools spent additional revenue on capital projects and debt service, but not on teachers. As the gap between teacher wages and private sector wages grew, so did teacher turnover and the percentage of inexperienced teachers, which helps explain the decline in student achievement. Changes in student composition did not account for the achievement decline but instead helped to moderate it. The findings illustrate the potential value of using revenue growth to retain teachers in times of rising private sector wages.

The Shale Oil Boom and the US Economy: Spillovers and Time-Varying Effects

We analyze if the transmission of oil price shocks on the U.S. economy has changed with the shale oil boom. To do so, we put forward a framework that allows for spillovers between industries and learning by doing (LBD) over time. We identify these spillovers using a time-varying parameter factor-augmented vector autoregressive (VAR) model with both state level and country level data. In contrast to previous results, we find considerable changes in the way oil price shocks are transmitted to the U.S economy: there are now positive spillovers to non-oil investment, employment and production from an increase in the oil price - effects that were not present before the shale oil boom.

Production linkages and dynamic fiscal employment effects of the extractive industries: input-output and nonlinear ARDL analyses of Azerbaijani economy

In this paper, we address the production linkages and employment effects of the petroleum sector on the rest of the Azerbaijani economy. The availability of the input-output tables for the years 2006, 2008, and 2009 enables the assessment of the changes with regard to the multiplier effects of the extractive industries over the first 3 years of the oil boom. We find that despite advanced infrastructure, well-developed petrochemical complex, and local content policies, the degree of integration of the international oil and gas business into the domestic economy is rather weak. In addition, both production and job creation multipliers slightly decreased after 3 years of exponential growth rates of oil production. The assessment of the production multipliers indicates that additional investments in processing, construction, and network industries have the highest production linkages. Concerning employment multipliers agriculture, education, health care, and public sector have the greatest job creation effects. To assess the fiscal employment effects of the oil revenues, which cannot be captured over the static input-output analysis, we employ the cointegrating nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model. The model reveals a sustainable job creation effect of oil revenues in the case of Azerbaijan.

Determining the characteristics of diffracted sea waves of finite amplitude around a vessel in considerable shallow waters

Vessels at shallow-water outer anchorage are exposed to a complex system of waves. This system results from the diffraction of sea-incident waves against a ship. When entering shallow waters, three-dimensional waves turn into two-dimensional ones. The wavelengths decrease while their periods are retained. Crests of the waves grow higher and become sharpened. A vessel at outer anchorage is surrounded by the emerging transformation zone where the waves become three-dimensional again. Defining characteristics for the sea waves, transformed by a vessel, is important for carrying out operations on eliminating oil spills. Tugboats, oil garbage collectors and boom crafts should work at any point around a vessel in emergency, in particular, from the side of incidence. That is why dimensions of the zone of waves’ transformation and the height of the waves in this zone define the safe operation of auxiliary ships. The available solution to the linear diffraction problem should be reworked to enable application of the nonlinear theory of waves.The paper gives an equation of a wave profile at the preset points of observation around a stationary elongated vessel in considerable shallow waters. The equation was derived from the expression for the potential of velocities of the diffracted wave motion caused by the incidence of oblique regular waves with finite amplitude. The characteristics for incident waves were determined from the Stokes theory of fifth order. The non-linear problem has been transformed to a combination of five linear problems. It was solved using the method of matched asymptotic expansions (MAEM).Based on the derived formulae, we calculated wave profiles at the assigned points around a vessel at the predefined time. There are variations in the depth of water area, the slope of waves, the course angle of waves. Examples have been provided for the profiles of nonlinear and linear waves in the plane of a vessel's cross section. We have demonstrated the similarities and differences between the linear and nonlinear waves around a vessel at shallow-water outer anchorage.

Jumping to treat sea lice: Harnessing salmon behaviour to enable surface-based chemotherapeutant application

Salmon lice removal with chemotherapeutants often occurs via bathing in cages or well-boats. These methods of administering chemotherapeutants require handling of fish and can expose fish to suboptimal environments which lead to poor performance and mortality. Post-treatment, the medicines used disperse into the environment with potentially harmful effects. An alternative method of delousing that requires minimal handling and allows recollection of chemotherapeutants uses a floating chemotherapeutant-infused oil layer and behavioural manipulation of salmon to stimulate jumping through the oil layer. Jumping can be enhanced via a period of forced submergence followed by reinstating surface access prior to applying the chemotherapeutant. We tested if the presence of a floating oil layer affected surface activity after 44 h of submergence, and found that the number of jumps fish−1 was similar regardless of the presence or absence of an oil layer. To determine if treatment efficacy increased with chemotherapeutant concentration, we tested four concentrations of cypermethrin dissolved in an oil layer; high cypermethrin concentrations removed the most lice (38% lice removal after 1 jump). However, the number of repeated jumps within a short period and hence exposure to the oil layer did not alter lice removal efficacy. Overall, we demonstrate that submerging fish to increase their jumping rate can be used in conjunction with a floating oil layer to deliver delousing chemicals, which could then be re-collected immediately after treatment via standard oil boom and skimming equipment. Future research should determine the short and long-term welfare impacts of this new treatment method on salmon, and test different chemotherapeutant and oil combinations that increase treatment efficacy with minimum welfare impacts on salmon.

In the Shadows of the Middle East’s Wars, Oil, and Peace: the Construction of Female Desires and Lesbianism in Middlebrow Egyptian Literature

Abstract This article employs the fictional writings of the Egyptian author Iḥsān ‘Abd al-Quddūs (1919–1990) to analyze the textually tangled anxiety over women’s sexuality and rapid political and socioeconomic changes in postcolonial Egypt and the Arab-East. Arguably one of the most prolific writers in Arabic in the twentieth century, ‘Abd al-Quddūs has achieved wide readership, and producers have adapted his books to popular commercial films and TV shows. Breaking taboos on women’s sexual desires, ‘Abd al-Quddūs’s work has been influential in shaping the popular notion about lesbian love wherein frustration with the postcolonial realities—inscribed by the Arab-Israeli conflict, Oil Boom, and globalization—have become entangled with the fear of women’s mobility and liberation.

Oil booms, bank productivity and natural resource curse in finance

Using a rich monthly microdata, this study is the first one to investigate the effect of commodity booms on bank productivity in the context of resource-endowed economies. Consistent with the axiom of a natural resource curse in finance, we find significant decline in banks’ total factor productivity (TFP) during episodes of oil booms.

The Legacy of Imperialism in Nigeria

At independence in 1960, the colonial rule in Nigeria transformed into neo-colonialism. Nigeria gained political sovereignty through a negotiated settlement that has retained and maintained economic, commercial, and intellectual ties with the ex-colonial administrators and other western nations. Agriculture, which was the economic focus of the colonial administration took a back seat once oil was discovered in commercial quantity in present day Bayelsa state after several failed attempts dating back to 1913. As oil became the main economic attraction in the post-colonial rule, it had various implications for the political economy of Nigeria. Despite attempts to pursue agriculture as a colonial heritage and for the benefit of Nigerians, the discovery of oil in 1956 and the oil boom in the 1970s laid the foundation for Nigeria’s dependence on oil as the primary source of its GDP. Using secondary sources and insight from our previous fieldwork in the Niger Delta region, the main argument in this paper is that, imperialism perpetuated the exploitation of agricultural products while its legacy, neo-colonialism has preserved the exploitation of crude oil to the detriments of other economic ventures and the Nigerian masses. Therefore, we posit that the transformation of colonialism into neo-colonialism in Nigeria has resulted in desperation for Nigerians as this arrangement gives power without responsibility and exploitation without redress.