The plummeting value of oil is making it even more dangerous for Scottish oil workers to ply their trade in Nigeria, a top intelligence firm warned last night.
Coupled with the falling value of the naira currency, the low oil price and decreasing production is causing a cash shortage in Nigeria’s petroleum sector.
Global intelligence firm Stratfor is now predicting another “violent” year in Nigeria as the cash to tackle militancy dries up.
“The decline in revenues leaves the Nigerian government much less room to manoeuvre amid clashing demands for scarce cash resources,” the Stratfor assessment states.
It adds: “Not spending money risks triggering reprisals in the Niger Delta, with militants largely composed of gangs of unemployed youths likely to turn to violence.”
The Niger Delta once produced 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, but output has decreased to less than 2million barrels.
And with oil falling from its July 2008 high of $147 a barrel to its current levels around the $40 mark, there is less revenue available to tackle either violence or poverty.
Since January 2006, 44 Britons and more than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in Nigeria. One Briton was killed.
In October that year, four north-east men were taken hostage. Graeme Buchan, 30, of Stuartfield, near Mintlaw; Paul Smith, 32, of Peterhead; Sandy Cruden, 45, of Inverurie, and George McLean, 42, of Elgin, were among seven men seized at gunpoint from a bar.
Last year, Aberdeen man Bruce Strachan was kidnapped by gunmen in Nigeria and held hostage for 15 days before being safely released.
Mr Strachan, of Cults, was thought to have been heading home in the oil town of Port Harcourt when he was seized by two gunmen.
The kidnappers reportedly demanded a £1.6million ransom.
Hoping to make some headway in the battle against the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) and other groups, the Nigerian government last month created a ministry to tackle the militancy and violence in the Niger Delta.
The Niger Delta Affairs Ministry is responsible for promoting development in the impoverished delta and combating the violence.