6th Fleet Focus: Nigerian River Delta

It remains to be seen what role the USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43) will play in the Nigerian River Delta when it deploys for its Global Fleet Station deployment later this year. The Nigerian River Delta problems are a mix of terrorism, internal insurgency, and maritime crime but because the issues are mostly political, not idealogical, it becomes politically complicated for external involvement, and it is questionable whether the US would assist Nigeria even if asked for assistance.

A new report is out that is calculating the cost of energy troubles in Nigeria. $14 billion dollars a year, or 600,000 barrels a day.

Nigeria loses $14 billion a year to oil theft, according to Stephen Hayes, the president of the Corporate Council on Africa.

The supposed monetary losses incurred by the oil-rich West African country were calculated based on the estimated number of barrels of lost production due to corruption and crime, said Hayes.

"If you are losing 600,000 barrels a day on oil at $70 a barrel, you are losing $12 million a day on oil theft," Hayes told Nigerian newspaper This Day.

Before stepped-up hostilities by militant and other armed groups in the Niger Delta beginning in late 2005, Nigeria claimed to be producing about 2.5 million bpd. Since then, production has reportedly decreased by at least 20 percent, perhaps even by one-third, warn some analysts.

These types of security problems are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Not only does the energy represent a loss to the larger global economic system, but the black market created from the theft tends to destabilize regional nations as well, leading to further regional insecurity and an increase in regional black market activity.

With this in mind, the SNMG1 African cruise appears to be focused on gathering information about the regional security issues. It is unclear what the information will be used for, but understanding the problem is a critical first step to acting on a solution.