Threat of violence many want to if they can be free. And want to thank 2 phase of the 19 how montana. Actions on aljazeera. Hello im come all santamaria this is counting the cost on aljazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week boyle just because youre resource rich in 2020 doesnt mean youre making money well look at the economies of some opec nations which arent making a cent in earnings thanks to the price crash and the coronavirus also oil versus lithium as calls grow for a green economic recovery post pandemic maybe green power could be the death knell for crude. And saudi arabia the oil giant whose Economic Diversification has led it to the north east of england but critics are accusing the kingdom of trying to sports watch its human rights record. Look we all know were in the middle of a storm like no other right now and really its no one even if you are a country with oil sure some of the bigger players are doing ok though even saudi arabia is cutting subsidies and raising taxes but small opec players are really taking a hit from the coronavirus pandemic and Oil Prices Sliding into negative territory however briefly think about oman and behind both could receive economic support from the likes of saudi arabia and the u. A. E. But our focus is on those resource rich nations that with oil prices at around 30. 00 a barrel may have to turn to the International Monetary fund and start with algeria which has seen its debt soar to 45. Percent of g. D. P. From just 26 percent and 2017 it had base this years austerity budget at 50. 00 a barrel so its potentially got real problems angola which in 2018 got a 3800000000 dollars loan from the i. M. F. And it could be banging on the door again as africas 2nd Biggest Oil Producer it relies on the sale of crude for 65 percent of its tax revenue ecuadors creditors have given the country a debt payment holiday but it could still default on its 17000000000. 00 debt and it also got an i. M. F. Loan of more than 600000000. 00 and then theres africas Biggest Oil Producer nigeria which has received a 3400000000. 00 loan from the i. M. F. You know nigeria is dependent on oil for 90 percent of its export earnings so with crude prices diving so badly it has little room to service its debt has this report now on what it all means for the nigerian economy its been a particularly difficult year for nigerians who are all dependent economy is struggling low prices and cuts in production resulted in huge losses. But more worrying for africas biggest producer is the damage the current clucked will do with fuel Storage Facilities the options for nigeria like many small and medium sized produces is to give away its oil or shut down some wells what were 52 days in on this dented block nobody has ever been taking to the interested edgewood do you think thats never happened why didnt they say well when can just come back to work. So much supply that the demand cannot compensate for that revenue shortfall some all have already forced the Nigerian Government to consider almost 40 percent cut in this is spending estimate. 1000000000 dollars identity for companies that youve had to shut down can i bring back the wealth if i come in by do with what happens next for you a bit of pain of somebody that you could call but thats not a prominent judge and the current cost of producing a barrel of oil in nigeria is about the same as the market price something produces an expert say isnt sustainable for a long period nigerias oil company the m. P. C. Says its engaging its joint Venture Partners all companies to see how do a father cut production the countrys current output is 1400000. 00 barrels of oil a day and as producers desperately look to shop prices its awful possible that nigeria will be forced to make products experts warn that the current instability in the oil market is said to father damage the economy nigeria imports a significant amount of consumer goods including Refined Petroleum products i believe from the party. And thats worked much. Too. Internationally. And thats whats much. More important and thats what. A lot of leading by an average nigerian a big forecast they could even get worse if the kind of market charge continues for a long time with us now from london for more on nigerias economic challenges is color karim he is the chief executive of the shoreline great which has holdings in a number of oil ventures nice to see a. Very simple question how do you make money from oil at the moment can a government make money from oil at the moment. Its very very tough looking at what is happening in the industry as it stands all were trying to do now with the National Oil Company is cut down our budgets try to negotiate existing contracts that will reflect in the present day position of where costs find itself on the government front is also very difficult if you think about it at the beginning of the year the percentage take for royalties is 20 percent looking about high sixtys and today reality is. You know thirtys so it is difficult for government itself its revenues drop considerably to be fair to nigeria in fact to be fair to any economy at the moment this downturn has been sharp its been fast its been brutal its difficult to prepare for. But did nigeria do enough to sort of make sure that it would be well they had some sort of contingency plan it is an unfortunate position if you think about is always shown to weather the storm in being able to battle different problems at any given time if you think back weve got the insurgency in the northeast that the governments been battling weve got the men and the farmers clashes but the governments been battling but abate at High Oil Prices so you can imagine this double or triple or quadruple stress on government and government finances looking now added on the pandemic and the global shutdown of the colonies coupled with the under supply over supply of oil in the market that itself is creating a very stressful position for any and any economy not talk of nigeria so then maybe there is a balance to be redressed here i mean if you look at the numbers as a percentage of g. D. P. Oil is 10 percent of of nigerias economy but it is 90 percent of its exports does there need to be some sort of rebalancing there where true to form the rebalance is actually been put in place to read a deficit of the ledger in the column yes the make up on g. D. P. At 10 percent thats poil but the reality is 90 percent of this Foreign Exchange income is coming from oil so you can see the adverse effect with this global downturn and the oversupply in the market and coupled with what is happening in the oil industry itself that is creating a very stressful position in trying to dress what the Current Situation is. As much as anyone can predict the future at the moment in this as we keep saying on person to time what are your thoughts about future oil demand something will definitely change as a result of this pandemic even if you just took one sector just said hey aviation thats probably going to change and it uses a lot of of oil where is the demand going to come from whats going to sort of reset. Well the what were all waiting to see is a game the resurgence of Global Growth one way or the other one thing is critical politically is Crystal Clear nigeria has an opportunity today to lead directs its focus not from moving it far away from oil but focusing and doubling up on its gas reserves look like just more of the gas country with 210 t. C. F. Of Gas Resources under the soil reality is this is an opportunity in making nigerias strict sense of positioning for business and enhancing the production on the continent of africa why do i say that if you think about it the world has been talking about the positioning of fossil fuels gas is clean their feel and aiding the resurgence of that fundamental position on the continent of africa by growing its economies nigeria can show its position by focusing on Gas Development gas exports into the countries in africa looking at west african gas pipeline going north also into europe and going south into Southern Africa as well disk would create huge deficit of haitian president ford in niger and economy that would make it an important player on the continent of africa in the energy space as well so this is interesting i want to say with us for a moment because we generally we focus on oil when it comes to nigeria what youve just explained about the gas sector is that a belief that you have is it one that others have is it one which the government is saying actually yes maybe we should do this to look at i think is a mixture of all things one is you see yesterday the nigerian ellen g. Signed the train 7 contract which is going to move nigeria again this is part of his gas utilization that this into moves nigerias production of energy from 22 metric tons 230000 metric tons good idea but the greater focus of what out. Talking about is making nigeria a resurgent gas on the continent of africa that will aid thats wat Industrial Revolution so the african continent that needs the gas utilization of the gas to growing the capacity around its industrial output this is an amazing opportunity that lie journal government of nigeria oil and gas industry and the sector or players in nigeria must redouble its efforts on in creating a new powerful nigeria and again more importantly creating a natural hedge for this type of occurrence is when all prices come down again really interesting stuff polar kareen thank you so much for joining us do appreciate it thank you. So what you should have learned so far is that oil is no longer the be all and end all cola karim was saying it there and self and and really what the planet under threat from Climate Change is well nor should it be and so enter the Energy Alternatives university has developed a plasma thruster this is a type of propulsion engine that could potentially power the planes of tomorrow and bring emissions free flying a step closer think about it this pandemic has reduced Global Consumption of oil by about a 3rd of jet airliners guzzling at least 5000000 barrels of the stuff every day and so coronavirus may just be the push green energy needs it should come as no surprise that the decline in fossil fuel use has led to an 8 percent fall in Global Carbon emissions according to the International Energy agency so maybe lithium the stuff that powers much of our electric cars and batteries can be a winner from this crisis. And elaine and then i think that he is head of Strategic Advisor at benchmark minerals and joins us from london now and they just specifically on whats going on at work on university plasma threw up the lithium and is there a plain english explanation for that yeah i think what youre seeing at the moment is this big lot of excitement around the lithium industry and what youre seeing is a couple of things really going on i was sectors particularly Hydrocarbons Oil and gas seeing a lot less investment going and now youre seeing short pricing cycles there a lot more volatility and thats less attractive to long term investors the move now is very much into the Clean Technologies previously the rate of return in those technologies havent really compare but now you are seeing long term low returns for oil and gas more sites on Clean Technology and thats good for both lithium and the lithium ion battery sector would be interested in the theme in other things which lead to cleaner energy do you think that can actually make a dent in oil and Gas Investments in the money that would usually go to it when Gas Investments or are we still in that sort of infancy stage to question and i agree we are still in the sea stage if you look at the size of the or the gas sector youre dealing with a couple of trillion dollars every year in terms of value the entire city of ion battery sector is only worth about 50000000000. 00 at the moment and on the fact lithium itself has probably somewhere around 10000000 but the interesting thing is that while were all evil you know the debate is still around people and relatively flattering demarco citing recent about what youre seeing in the battery sector is double digit growth close to 2025 percent growth every year for the next couple of decades and that very quickly get close to the half trillion dollar level by the time we get to the mid twentys thirtys. Hi im going to make a bit of a generalization here but by and large lithium the lithium batteries i should point out come from china they are made in china theyre exported and what we have seen in this crisis what it is showing up is how fragile supply chains are i mean ive heard a lot about stuff in the u. K. Where you are about people saying that you know manufacturing needs to be to be brought home brought away from china it is that something in this particular market that can be done that could be done in the u. K. In the u. S. In any where else absolutely and you know as we highlighted this pandemic is seeing what we are right its like chain nationalism now that was already going on in this sector 70 percent live in iran so as a car you go in china and clearly thats not sustainable for economies like the e. U. For economies like the us who are going to rely on these batteries to be effectively the engines of vehicles go forward so as the industry grows we can build out asked in europe we can build our asti in the u. S. And also other locales around the world it just starting to see the potential of this sector what youre talking about there with lithium Battery Powered cars that is a longer term shift im just wondering seeing as were talking about oil a lot of the moment on this program what your thoughts are about some of the immediate demand for oil when things settle down do you think it will be able to lift up its demand a bit again so new york youll see a rebound. Particularly an issue for the u. S. Where you have higher cost of production is the long term they look far less attractive than they did 6 months ago. We will see a rebound in our obviously from very low levels at the moment but in terms of the comparison to demand growth for say the Clean Tech Industry its quite clear youre going to see a big boom going into cleantech at the expense of the oil and weve seen a lot of the big national. Regeneration fund. Being announced for places like the like india which really want to focus those phones not on the old economies but into clean tech and. Low carbon. Industries and elaine and talking alternative energy with us on counting the cost thank you thank you so once again lets think about the trend were seeing oils on the way out or Oil Economies need to diversify and sport is a pretty good way to do that not only is it an investment its potential soft power so for example the English Football ClubNewcastle United a team with 128 years of history could be in the hands of new owners very soon guess who the buyer is its Saudi Arabias Public Investment Fund which could end up owning 80 percent of the premier league club now saudi arabia comes with a lot of baggage these days there is its human rights record the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and its alleged theft of t. V. Rights to the premier league in the middle easts they could all be rail what is a 375 1000000. 00 deal with Newcastle Amnesty International has accused the Saudi Crown PrinceMohammed Bin Salman of using the glamour and the procedure of the premier league to cover up actions that are either deeply immoral or actually just in contravention of international law. Were going to head a couple of 100 miles south of new counsel to coventry to speak to Simon Chadwick hes director of the center for the eurasian sport industry its nice to have you with us simon i know there was opposition to this deal is that the kind of opposition do you think they could actually lose its a difficult question to answer at the moment because there seems to be a wall of silence certainly in terms of the premier leagues fit and proper person test i dont think necessarily that the major hurdle but i think the this whole deal is embedded within a complex network of different influences weve seen Jamal Khashoggi fiance for example sending letters to to newcastle fans and indeed to to newspapers calling for the deal to be banned at the same time you also have the British Government which on the one hand is facing pressure to. Intervene in the deal but at the same time is obviously mindful of the business relationships the country already has with saudi arabia you then obviously got be in sports and there are concerns of legal action involving be out q and so this is not a straightforward matter so i think the silence at the moment is very difficult to interpret lets go to their b. And b. Out q. Issue as it were i mean this is an issue of of t. V. Rights which we know are worth so much i mean theyre with bigger than the game themselves now i mean it doesnt really look right does it for a country which has been centrally you know looking on while these have been hijacked to be involved directly with the club i guess the big issue here is is that. It needs to be proven beyond doubt that there is a connection between be out here and the saudi government which i think theres still some debate around that but neverthe