The Intelligence Review | volume 1 | issue 2 |

2016 Algeria produced 1,088,000 barrels of oil per day, while Gabon and Libya produced
a combined total of close to 700,000 barrels of oil per day. In that same month, Nigeria
produced 1,628,000 and Angola 1,586,000 barrels a day (Various 2016:57). Direct
communication from national oil representatives provided similar data —or in some cases
no data— on the lower-tier OPEC members; however, it displayed considerable variation
for Nigeria (1,476,000) and Angola (1,507,000) (Various 2016:58). These figures fluctuated
during the last year, at times placing Angola higher than Nigeria, or vice versa. Regardless,
they still show the two countries’ respective averages, placing Angola and Nigeria in close
contention to lead African oil production.
Background
The Nigerian oil sector is controlled by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC). The NNPC is a national oil enterprise, managed by the Nigerian government,
which operates primarily in the Niger Delta. This region, located in the southern portion
of Nigeria, sits on the Gulf of Guinea and contains close to 90 percent of all Nigerian oil
reserves (Taylor 2008:77). Nigeria has a long history of widespread corruption in its public
and private oil sectors. Malpractice has been especially common in the Nigerian oil sector
history: thus, “between 1960 and 2000, oil reserves were exploited resulting in revenues of
more than $350 billion to the Nigerian government (in 1995 prices), while real per capita
income fell over the same period” (Marwan 2014:995).
In Nigeria, oil accounts for “80 percent of government revenue, 95 percent of foreign
exchange earnings, and 40 percent of gross domestic product” (Onuoha 2016). However, due
to decades of negligence by successive Nigerian governments, the country’s infrastructure
is underdeveloped and the low morale of its citizens leaves the nation susceptible to domestic
influence from militant organizations. Groups like Boko Haram and the Niger Delta Avengers
(NDA) thrive on public unrest. While these groups do not share a similar goal, they both
act with destructive intent and use government neglect as a tool to promote their respective
causes. Attacks by domestic militant groups have incapacitated oil infrastructure. Since these
factions prosper as a result of government corruption, transparency is necessary for Nigerian
prosperity and public support. In an effort to combat the appeal of militant groups,
Muhammadu Buhari, who was elected president in 2015, has focused his campaign on
transparency and dedicated a large portion of his election campaign to the alleviation of
government corruption (Nwabughiogu 2016), an issue that has plagued the national oil sector.
In Angola, the Sonangol Group is a state-owned enterprise that controls the country’s oil
sector. It shares similarities with the NNPC in terms of management and responsibility.
The current CEO of Sonangol, Isabel dos Santos, is the daughter of President Jose Eduardo
dos Santos. Angola, considered by observers as heavily corrupt, has been under the control
of dos Santos since 1979 (Anon. 2016a). In June of 2016, dos Santos fired the entire Sonangol
board and appointed a new board, with his daughter as chairwoman. He argued that the
Sonangol restructuring was intended to increase efficiency (Burgess 2016). Some experts,
however, believe that the restructuring was a strategic move by the president, aimed at
putting family in control of important economic sectors ahead of the 2018 election, before
which he plans to step down (Cropley 2016). Oil makes up “more than 90 percent of
Angola’s foreign exchange earnings, making Sonangol the biggest source of state funding”
(Anon. 2016a). With that in mind, it can be argued that the actions of the dos Santos family
display signs of nepotism and illustrate the persistence of corruption in Angola.
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