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The Intelligence from The Economist

Playing the fuel: reforming Nigeria’s subsidies

The Intelligence from The Economist

The Economist

Daily News, Global News, News

4.53.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2024

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Large fuel subsidies in Nigeria are popular but ruinous to other public services. Our correspondents report from Lagos on how home-grown oil refining could help wean people off this popular premium. Texas was once a haven for crypto-mining; now many people are souring on it (11:06). And the terrifying rise of Indonesian horror films (17.05).


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Transcript

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0:00.0

BP is working to bring more lower carbon energy to the UK, like developing offshore wind,

0:06.1

and we're keeping oil and gas flowing from the North Sea. It's and not all. That's how BP is backing Britain. Well today we're mostly in oil and gas.

0:16.0

We increased the proportion of our global annual investment that went into our lower carbon and other transition businesses from around 3% in 2019 to around 23% in

0:26.0

2023. VP.com slash and not all. The Economist.

0:37.0

Hello and welcome'm Jason Palmer.

0:45.0

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

0:55.0

In recent years, Bitcoin miners have been drawn to Texas for its plentiful land, cheap power and libertarian ethos.

1:05.1

But the state is becoming a little less welcoming.

1:09.2

And Indonesia is a country rich in history and folklore.

1:14.0

Now it's using these stories to produce a new global export.

1:18.0

Coming soon to a screen near you, Indonesian horror films.

1:22.0

Be very afraid.

1:24.0

First up,

1:25.0

the

1:28.0

first up First up though, though. This week something big changed for Nigerians and there are hints of a far bigger change still to come. On Sunday, tanker trucks picked up the first batch of petrol from a

1:58.4

mega refinery built by Alico Dangote, the country's richest man.

2:03.4

Nigeria is unusual in two ways when it comes to fuel.

2:07.6

One is that it has plenty of oil reserves, but for nearly 30 years had no capacity to refine it into petrol until now. The other is that for

2:16.7

decades the government insisted petrol was sold well below cost, something like 600 Naira a leader when a fair market price is over a

2:24.8

thousand. The subsidies that picked up the rest chronically squeeze all other

2:29.7

public spending. But yesterday the state-owned oil firm released estimates of what the new

2:35.3

home-brewed petrol will cost and it's close to that thousand mark. To talk about

...

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