The majority of militants who took part in an amnesty last year in the restive Niger Delta region are still behind the peace plans despite a resurgence in attacks, the Nigerian oil minister told Reuters on Tuesday.
Nigerian militants detonated two car bombs outside a government building in the southern oil city of Warri on Monday, where talks were being held about implementing an amnesty programme.
The attacks, claimed by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), are the first by Nigeria’s biggest militant group since the amnesty programme began last year.
Nigeria, however, believes the majority of the thousands of militants who laid down their weapons in the amnesty deal were still behind the plan to bring peace to the Niger Delta.
“Most of them are on board,” Rilwanu Lukman told Reuters ahead of a meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) in Vienna.
“Very generous provisions were made for the militants in the amnesty. They’re being retrained, rehabilitated and many things are being done. It is a matter of continuing to do what we can.”
The programme was the most concerted effort yet to end years of unrest, which have prevented the Opec member from producing much above two-thirds of its three million barrels per day (bpd) oil capacity, costing it about $1-billion a month in lost revenue.
Lukman told reporters in Vienna that Africa’s biggest oil and gas industry was producing well below capacity as damage to oil facilities from attacks continued to restrict production.
Opec will meet on Wednesday to discuss output targets after members agreed to slash 4,2-million barrels per day (bpd) from output to curb supply in December 2008 as the economic downturn hit demand.
Lukman said there was slightly too much oil in the market currently but Opec was still happy with situation.
“At the moment the market is a little oversupplied. We are hopeful demand is moving, economy is recovering, we are happy with the situation as it is,” he said. — Reuters