ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 examines whether NCR can explain the differences and relative success and failure of China and India in their respective efforts to mobilise oil in the oil industry in Nigeria. As discussed in the introductory chapter, although both Nigeria and São Tomé and Principe have jurisdiction over the JDZ, the study discusses it with Nigeria because São Tomé and Principe is an extremely minor player in the oil industry in West Africa. Thus the chapter does a case study ‘pattern matching’ of one country in West Africa, namely Nigeria. The chapter is divided into four sections. Section I provides a brief background of Nigeria and discusses the oil industry in Nigeria, the oil reserves and production and the problems facing the oil industry. Section II compares and contrasts the political, diplomatic and economic relations of India and China respectively with Nigeria. It highlights that China’s economic, political and diplomatic engagement with Nigeria far surpasses India’s engagement with Nigeria. Section III discusses the oil blocks bid for and acquired by India and China in Nigeria and JDZ in Nigeria-São Tomé and Principe. It investigates if Chinese and Indian oil companies entered into direct competitive bidding for the oil blocks and if the former outbid the latter, the number of oil blocks that oil companies from the two countries have bid for and acquired and the type of Indian and Chinese oil companies that are operating in the oil industry in Nigeria. It also examines the quality of the oil blocks acquired by oil companies from the two countries. Section IV provides an analysis of India’s and China’s interaction in the oil industry in Nigeria.
