双语时事：尼日利亚因石油盗窃损失惨重

2012-06-28 00:00:00来源：可可英语

　　The Nigerian state and oil -companies are losing $1bn or more a month to oil theft by criminal networks whose activities have expanded rapidly under the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan.
　　尼日利亚石油盗窃活动猖獗，每月给国家和石油公司造成10亿美元以上的损失。德勒克乔纳森(Goodluck Jonathan)担任总统后，犯罪团伙盗窃石油的活动迅速增长。
　　According to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the finance minister, the trade in stolen oil led to a 17 per cent fall in official oil sales in April, or about 400,000 barrels per day. At average April prices of $121 per barrel, this implied a loss of $1.2bn. This is a higher estimate than that given by SPDC, Royal Dutch Shell"s -Nigerian subsidiary, which put theft at between 150,000b/d and 180,000b/d.
　　尼日利亚财政部长恩戈齐奥孔约-伊韦阿拉(Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala)表示，遭窃石油流入市面，导致4月官方石油销售量下降17%，或每日减少40万桶左右。4月平均油价为每桶121美元，这意味着尼日利亚损失了12亿美元。这一估计高于荷兰皇家壳牌(Royal Dutch Shell)尼日利亚子公司SPDC的估计，后者认为每日的损失在15万桶至18万桶之间。
　　Ms Okonjo-Iweala said that the theft of oil–known in Nigeria as "bunkering"–along with fraud in the allocation of a - controversial fuel subsidy, might together have cost the state $14bn in 2011.
　　奥孔约-伊韦阿拉表示，盗窃石油活动，再加上在一项有争议的燃料补贴分配过程中的欺诈行为，可能导致尼日利亚政府在2011年损失140亿美元。
　　This leaves Africa's leading oil producer with a limited cushion if oil prices continue to fall. Nigeria, Africa's second-largest economy, depends on oil for more than 75 per cent of its hard currency earnings and typically more than 90 per cent of state revenues.
　　因此，如果油价继续下跌，这个非洲最大产油国的缓冲能力有限。尼日利亚是非洲第二大经济体，该国逾75%的硬通货收入来自石油，政府税收中来自石油的部分通常也占到90%以上。
　　"We have to get very serious about the bunkering issue,"
　　"我们必须非常认真地对待石油盗窃问题，
　　"Ms Okonjo-Iweala told the Financial Times. "If we can stop the amount that is stolen, we can beef up the excess crude account faster."
　　奥孔约-伊韦阿拉向英国《金融时报》表示："如果我们能够阻止犯罪团伙盗窃石油，我们就可以更快地充实石油溢价收益基金账户(ECA)。
　　"The trade in stolen oil now involves a sophisticated criminal network and international traders who provide oil at discounted prices to refineries in west Africa, China and India.
　　遭窃石油的交易目前包括一个复杂的犯罪网络和国际交易商，后者以折扣价格向西非、中国和印度的精炼厂提供石油。
　　Bunkering expanded rapidly when local gangs in the Niger delta took up arms in the late 1990s to try to force the federal government to give more oil revenues to the region.
　　上世纪90年代末，尼日尔三角洲当地黑帮动用武器试图迫使联邦政府给予该地区更多的石油收入，石油盗窃活动变得猖獗。