Abstract
For the past three decades, oil has been a major source of revenue and energy for the Nigerian economy. Nigeria’s huge oil revenue has not satisfactorily impacted on the living conditions on majority of Nigerians. The “paradox of plenty” lends support to the “resource curse” doctrine that abundant natural resource endowment makes a country poorly focused on growth and development. Against this background, this study evaluates the performance of oil sector of Nigeria. The required data was sourced from Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin and the study started with test of stationarity of time series data using Augmented Dickey-Fuller test, while Johansen test for co-integration ascertains the long run relationship of the variables. Ordinary least square was used to analyze the data. The results show that investment and oil export has a positive relationship with output level of Gross Domestic Product. The R-squared result revealed that 95.2% of the total variation in economic growth is accounted for by changes in the explanatory variables. The study recommends that appropriate policies to address the issue of oil dependence in Nigeria should focus on diversification and industrialization to promote economic growth. Also, government should increase its expenditure on rural roads and electricity as this will accelerate the productive sectors as well as raise the standard of living of poor citizens in Nigeria.

Keywords
Economic growth, Government Policy, Nigeria and Oil Export

Cite this paper
Chidi U. Ubani, Adeniyi M. Yusuff, Olusegun Adeteji Okutimiren, Ekanem Edem Udo Udo, Overview of the Performance of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Sector (1981-2014) , SCIREA Journal of Economics. Volume 1, Issue 2, December 2016 | PP. 76-92.

References

[ 1 ]	Auty, R. M. (1993). Sustaining Development in Mineral Economies: The Resource Curse Thesis, London: Routledge.
[ 2 ]	Auty, R. M. (1998). Resource abundance and economic development: Improving the Performance of Resource Rich Countries, Helsinki: UNU World Institute for Development Economics research.
[ 3 ]	Azaiki and Shagari (2007).Oil, Gas and Life in Nigeria, Ibadan, Y – Books, a Division of Associated Book – Makers Nigeria Limited.
[ 4 ]	Bakare, A. S. & Fawehinmi, F. O. (2011).An econometric study of the contribution of oil sector to the standard of living in Nigeria (1975—2008).Asian Journal of Business and Management Sciences, 1(3), 1—8.ISSN 2047-2528.
[ 5 ]	Baridam, D. M (2008). Research Methods in Administrative Sciences, Port Harcourt, Sherbrooke Associates, 3rd ed. pp. 51-90.
[ 6 ]	Baumol, W.J. & W. G .Oates (1988).The theory of environmental policy (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[ 7 ]	Bawa, S. & Mohammed, J. A. (2007).Natural Resource Abundance and Economic Growth in Nigeria. Central Bank of Nigeria Economic Review, 45(3): pp. 25-32.
[ 8 ]	Central Bank of Nigeria. (2011). Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin. Abuja: Central Bank of Nigeria.
[ 9 ]	Clemente, L., R. Faris and A. Puente, 2002. Natural Resource Dependence, Volatility and Economic Performance in Venezuela: The Role of a Stabilization Fund andean Competitiveness Project Working paper, February 2002.
[ 10 ]	Coase R. H. (1960). The problem of social cost. Journal of Law and Economics, 3, pp. 1-40.
[ 11 ]	Gujarati, D.N. (1995): Basic Econometrics. 3rd ed. Mcgraw-Hill International Editions.
[ 12 ]	Gylfason, T. (2001).Natural resources, education and economic development. European Economic Review, 45: pp. 847-859.
[ 13 ]	Marshall, A. (2009). Principles of Economics (8th ed.). New York: Cosimo Inc.
[ 14 ]	Mbendi, M.L. (2000): Law and Petroleum Industry in Nigeria Lagos, Nigeria: African Books Publishers.
[ 15 ]	Meade, J. (1973). The Theory of Economic Externalities. Brill Archives.
[ 16 ]	Mehrara, M. Maki, M. and Tavakolian, H. (2010), “The relationship between oil revenues and economic growth, using threshold methods: the case of Iran”, OPEC Energy Review 34, pp. 1–14.
[ 17 ]	Mehrara, M. Niki Oskoui, K. (2006). “The sources of macroeconomic fluctuations in oil exporting countries: A comparative study”, University of Tehran.
[ 18 ]	Nafziger, E.W. & J. Auvinen. (2003) “Economic Development, Inequality, and War: Humanitarian Emergencies in Developing Countries”. Houndmills: Palgrave, Macmillan.
[ 19 ]	Odularu, G. O. (2008). Crude oil and the Nigerian economic performance. Oil and Gas Business. World Trade Organization Centre, Willian Rappard, Geneva.
[ 20 ]	Pigou, A. C. (1920). The Economics of Welfare. London: Macmillan and Co.
[ 21 ]	Rosser, A. (2006). The political economy of the resource curse: A literature survey. IDS Working Paper 268.