According to Reuters, “Repairs to sabotaged oil facilities in the Niger Delta and new production from deepwater projects should help cement Nigeria’s place as Africa’s top crude oil producer, a role it reclaimed this year.” Angola briefly supplanted Nigeria as the continent’s top producer, but all things being equal, Nigeria probably has significant advantages over any oil-producing nation in Africa. Political stability will be the key factor in the continued success of the country’s oil production, though that said, as with most countries in Africa who have dealt with the so-called resource curse, Nigeria has not exactly seen the country’s oil wealth trickle down to the country’s masses.
