By Sonny Atumah It is almost three years when Dr. Maikanti Baru assumed the headship of the national oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. One recalls on this column a   message to Baru to reengineer the NNPC. The July 30, 2016 edition of this column made reference to Ptolemy’s response to Euclid the […]

It is the 10th anniversary of the end of the Great Recession which lasted from December 2007 to June 2009. It was a period of general economic decline observed in the world market. With slowing corporate earnings in the U.S. and sluggish growth abroad, economists predict another recession by the end of 2021, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele appears to be waving the red flag on Nigeria that majorly depends on crude oil for export revenue. Emefiele daintily spoke on the urgency to take actions that would wean the economy from excessive reliance on crude earnings for survival. Last week end in Lagos, Emefiele warned that rising volatility in the crude oil market occasioned by the rapid increase in the supply of shale oil by the United States, portends danger for Nigeria. He fear was that the United States crude production has spiked from nine million barrels per day in 2017, to over 12 million barrels per day today could become Nigeria’s albatross.

The escalating trade war between the two biggest economies, the United States and China is a cause for worry in global business. The effect of the trade war is indeed, trickling down into the Chinese real economy and sapping downstream demand especially for gasoline. If not checked it may not take a longer time for the situation to exacerbate with global economies going into recession. The threat of an all-out trade war would dampen the outlook for the global economy. There has been intense concern about a slowdown in China, believed to be the motor for growth in the global economy in recent times. Bloomberg’s Economists say: In an extreme case, where the U.S. imposes 25 percent tariffs on all Chinese imports, and keeps them in place for an extended period,China’s growth could fall to 6 percent in 2019, and 5.4 percent in 2020, even assuming that the government steps up stimulus. The impact on global growth analyst believe is non-linear; the risks are firmly skewed to the downside and the window for resolution is narrowing.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, May 29, 2019 took oath of office and oath of allegiance as stipulated by the 1999 Constitution, to signal the commencement of his second term in office. Buhari’s political re-embodiment no doubt has tasked and would continue to sap his sagging energetic and unflagging enthusiasm in politics and governance for the eight year period he has mandate with Nigeria, the covenantee. The authority bestowed on his government by the electoral victory, effectively authorizes it to carry out the policies for which it campaigned i.e. security, anti corruption and the economy.

The year long celebration of the Offshore Technology Conference, OTC at 50 ended last Thursday at the New Radiancy Group, NRG Park in Houston, Texas. The celebration of 50 years began at the 2018 edition, culminating in 2019, from May 6- 9.  Founded in 1969, by 12 engineering and scientific organizations, it was a response to the growing technological needs of the global ocean extraction and environmental protection industries.