Posted on 03/05/2006 1:26:32 PM PST by Flavius
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - Armed militants in Nigeria vowed Sunday to cut daily oil exports from this West African country's troubled delta region by another one million barrels by the end of March, as OPEC countries prepared for a strategy meeting in Vienna this week. ADVERTISEMENT
A wave of militant assaults on pipelines and oil facilities has already cut production by 455,000 barrels per day in Nigeria, which normally exports 2.5 million barrels of crude daily.
In recent days, militants have repeatedly threatened to escalate the conflict with new attacks and rocket assaults on international oil tankers in Nigerian waters. There have been no new attacks since militants destroyed Shell-operated pipeline on Feb. 20.
In an e-mail to The Associated Press, the militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said "we are going to inflict one huge, crippling blow on the Nigerian oil industry and a most embarrassing attack on the Nigerian government."
"Our target for the month of March is a further cut of one million barrels." Nigerian normally exports 2.5 million barrels of oil daily," the group said.
The militant group claims to be fighting for the interests of the people of the Niger Delta region, which has remained poor despite the fact that most of Nigeria's oil is being pumped from it.
The threats come ahead of a meeting Wednesday of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which will set strategies in Vienna for spring and early summer.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-09-24-nigeria_x.htm
I will bet you they went long the futures market on Friday just before the close...
The overnight oil contracts are going to start trading here shortly...
I will post a chart as soon as they open...
well, iran has also been squeezed, as much as paper weights are a real threat. i think they coordinate this with them.
nigeria and iran... working to created oil issue so that the west would back off. its time to finally purchase the corn engines
They probably can do it, too. Nigeria seems wholly incapable of defending the facilities that create its major source of revenue.
The market will respond to actual production cuts, but these promises by the terrorists are already factored in.
Don't forget the chicoms.
Well, we better go ahead and raise prices at the pumps $.50 just in case.
We will see shortly...
I firmly believe that they played the capital markets short on 9-11, and that they play the oil and gold markets today on this sort of thing.
You can bet they were long when they attempted that attack on SA a week or so ago...
If you'd bother to look at a map, Nigeria is a big country, and the oil producing region of the delta is not in Northern Nigeria.
Perhaps I missed it but did the fact that the "militants" were "Islamic" ever get mentioned?
Is this the same area where the (Muslim) Nigerian government executed Ken Sarowiwa and some other local Christian leaders a few years ago for supposed treason? Is it near the Christian region of Biafra? I'd be inclined to wonder if this an inter-religious thing.
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