Search Results for: Nigeria

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT has long been outmoded and inaccurate to split the world into two camps: industrialised developed economies, and largely agricultural developing countries. The growth of the 1990s and the current decade means there is a wide range of social and economic sophistication and wealth amongst the poorer of these two old-fashioned categories.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and EMMA JACKSON

IF the competition to build gas pipeline networks from Russia, the Caucasus and central Asia to central and western Europe were a horserace, commentators would say it was still too close to call.

For although politicians and diplomats in Brussels, Moscow and other European capitals would never admit it publicly, these multi-million investment projects are contests of power and influence.…

BY JAMES FULLER

WHILE the global recession is hitting profits in the oil and gas sector worldwide, the Caribbean’s key producer Trinidad & Tobago remains bullish about the industry bringing it long term financial and economic stability. Indeed, the twin-island country’s minister of energy and energy industries Conrad Enill said this month that both a fifth liquefied natural gas (LNG) train and a new oil refinery are projects which are still firmly on the table for the Caribbean energy powerhouse.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

IF there was a year when long-term textile and clothing market forecasters missed by a mile, 2008 was it. Forecasts made in 2007 were dominated by looming concerns about trade restrictions, investment in technology, a potential slow-down of production and a consolidation of business investment but no one predicted what devastating effects an unexpected recession would have on the textiles and apparel sector.…

By Thompson Ayodele, in Lagos

As the Group of 20 top industrialised and developing economies prepared to meet in London, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon warned them that "the economic crisis may soon be compounded by an equally severe crisis of global instability." A key problem is that trade is deteriorating every day and political pressures demand import restrictions to protect employment. This is no way out: such protectionism would make this particular depression ‘Great’. 

Everyone says trade is the best way out – but on their own terms: last November, the G20 leaders signed a pledge against protectionism yet, in the second half of 2008, 17 out of the G20 passed 47 restrictions of trade, the World Bank claims. …

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NIGERIAN government has assured the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) that it is acting seriously against pirates who have been targeting oil tankers and industry supply vessels in and offshore the country’s oil-rich delta. Nigeria transport minister Ibrahim Bio assured IMO in London a new Niger Delta ministry had "full powers to address…the problem of militancy and piracy."…

BY MONICA DOBIE

SOUTH Africa’s Wise Design International Ltd has announced plans to cultivate 40,000 hectares of sugarcane in the northern Nigeria state of Gombe to feed a proposed nearby state-of-the art sugar factory

ENDS…

BY MARK GODFREY

THE BUREAUCRATS and engineers who run China’s booming hydropower sector will be in listening mode in April when the world descends on Beijing for the second International Conference on Hydropower Technology & Equipment. The theme of this year’s government-sponsored gathering – ‘Sustainable China Hydropower Industry’ – reflects worries about the environmental impact of recent massive hydropower projects in China.…

BY GEORGE STONE

WHAT a difference a year has made in the African oil industry. With sky rocketing oil prices fuelling an expansion boom in 2007 and 2008, this year will be much tougher for the oil and gas sector in sub-Saharan Africa.…

BY GEORGE STONE

SOUTHERN Africa has always been rich in natural resources, but its ability to process and manufacture them has not always matched this bounty. Oil refining capacity is a case in point and the governments of South Africa, Angola and Mozambique are trying to push forward.…