A string of deals with foreign firms to plug financing gaps in Nigeria’s oil industry will help unlock significant shut-in potential in the world’s eighth biggest exporter. Nigeria has signed deals worth -billion with Exxon Mobil and Total over the past week and is finalising a similar agreement with Royal Dutch Shell.
At least 43 Nigerian soldiers who had just returned from a peacekeeping mission in Darfur have been killed in a road accident in the north of Nigeria, a military spokesperson said on Thursday. The soldiers, including an army captain, were in a convoy of seven vehicles in north-eastern Yobe state on Wednesday when one of them collided with an oncoming petrol tanker.
Nigeria has become the world piracy ”hot spot”, with its prized oil industry a particular target, and the raiders have exposed flaws in the country’s security. Despite the massive revenues earned from oil, officials concede Nigeria is ill-equipped to combat pirates who ply the seas with speed boats, modern machine guns and radios.
Thousands gathered on Friday around charred destruction from a deadly pipeline explosion as Nigerian firefighters doused flames triggered by the blast that had burnt for more than a day. Local officials put the death toll at 15, disputing the Nigerian Red Cross’s claim that about 100 people were killed.
Record oil prices should mean boom times for Nigeria’s oil industry, but rising militant violence, labour unrest and years of government neglect cast a shadow over its future. Africa’s largest oil producer saw its two million barrel-a-day production halved last month by an eight-day strike at United States oil major Exxon Mobil.
Rebels who have stepped up attacks on Nigeria’s oil industry in the last month said on Sunday they were considering a ceasefire appeal by United States presidential hopeful Barack Obama. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has launched five attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta since it resumed a campaign of violence in April.
Royal Dutch Shell shut down more of its production in Nigeria after a fresh militant attack on Saturday on a flowstation in the restive Niger Delta, where local militants have stepped up a campaign of violence. Security sources said that three wells had been blown up, as well as other equipment.
The main militant group behind a string of recent attacks in Nigeria’s southern oil region said on Friday it had sabotaged another pipeline. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said its fighters hit a pipeline late on Thursday in southern Rivers State — bringing to four the number of pipelines the group has reportedly hit in the past week.
A rebel group from Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta said it attacked two major oil pipelines there on Monday in what it called a message to the United States. In an email, a faction of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said its commandos had carried out attacks against the pipelines located at Isaka River and Abonnema River.
More than 3 000 delegates from 193 nations will descend on the Ghana capital, Accra, on Sunday for five days of United Nations talks on globalisation — against a backdrop of rising food prices and an economic slowdown. The talks will be opened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who will warn that not everyone benefits from globalisation.
Thirteen students in a private Nigerian primary school died and several others were injured when a boundary wall collapsed, police said on Wednesday. ”It was an unfortunate incident. Thirteen children lost their lives while several others, including their teachers, were also injured,” Oyo state police spokesperson Bisi Okuwobi said.
Police in the north-west Nigerian state of Kebbi, home to the Argungu fishing festival, have released on bail this year’s champion, arrested last week for allegedly smuggling his winning monster catch already dead into the river, a police chief said on Sunday. The fishing champion was arrested on Friday.
Gunmen aboard a speedboat attacked a security vessel as it travelled to a major oil industry port in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, killing a Nigerian sailor, security sources said on Thursday. About 15 unknown gunmen attacked the vessel late on Wednesday as it travelled along the Bonny river towards Onne.
The risk of renewed violence in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta is increasing because militants are frustrated by a lack of concrete results from peace talks, a key negotiator said on Wednesday. Kingsley Kuku, a senior member of a government peace committee, said the government still had an opportunity to avert violence.
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/ 26 February 2008
Nigeria’s prisons are a ”national scandal”, filled with thousands of inmates who have never been convicted of any crime while some prisoners wait decades to face trial, Amnesty International said on Tuesday. The human rights group said only about 35% of Nigerian inmates have been convicted in court.
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/ 4 February 2008
Three soldiers and eight militants were killed in a gun battle at an oil pipeline hub operated by Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria’s southern state of Bayelsa, the navy said on Sunday. Shell said the Tora manifold, which sends oil to the Bonny export terminal, was not damaged in the attack late on Saturday.
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/ 24 January 2008
Cigarette packets sold in Nigeria carry a health warning: ”The Federal Ministry of Health warns that cigarette smokers are liable to die young.” But, says the government, this warning has not stopped many Nigerian youngsters from smoking. Taju Olaide says that he was unaware of the warning because he is uneducated and therefore cannot read what is printed on the cigarette packs.
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/ 11 January 2008
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) on Friday claimed responsibility for the blaze that started earlier in the day on a tanker berthed in Port Harcourt, the country’s main oil hub. "Mend confirms that its Freelance Freedom Fighters working inside the oil industry detonated a remote explosive device," the group said in a statement.
Armed groups in Nigeria’s oil-producing south are building up weapons and supplies for a major attack on an oil facility in the world’s eight largest exporter, militant and security sources said on Tuesday. The planned rebel offensive against Africa’s largest oil industry comes after the collapse of a government peace initiative.
At least 12 people were killed over New Year in Nigeria’s oil capital, Port Harcourt, when gunmen attacked two police stations and a hotel, a military officer in the city said on Wednesday. ”For now what we are looking at is between 12 and 16 dead in total,” the officer, who asked not to be named, said, adding that the total included both civilians and police.
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/ 26 December 2007
About 40 people have died in a fire at an oil pipeline after it was vandalised by looters in the southern Nigerian state of Lagos, a police spokesperson said on Wednesday. Thirty-four bodies had been recovered from the site of Tuesday’s explosion, said Lagos state police spokesperson Frank Mba.
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/ 23 December 2007
Despite being the world’s eighth petroleum exporter and sitting on huge gas reserves, Nigeria will not have it easy over the next two years, between peristent unrest in the Niger Delta and strained relations with oil companies. This absence of security means that Nigeria, which ranks fifth among suppliers of crude oil to the United States, lost one quarter of its production in 2006 and 2007.
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/ 21 December 2007
Banker Funso Afolabi has still not recovered from the day he went out for a drink with friends in Lagos after work only to be attacked by armed robbers on the lookout for cash, watches and cellphones. ”We thought it was a joke, until one of them fired some shots into the air. A stray bullet hit one of my friends and he has been unable to use his right leg ever since,” the 40-year-old laments.
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/ 13 December 2007
Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua was to have his first meeting with United States President George Bush in Washington on Thursday, after US criticism of his election but admissions that Nigeria’s oil is important. They ”will discuss electoral reform and related issues, energy and the situation in the Niger Delta,” Bush’s spokesperson said.
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/ 9 December 2007
Umaru Yar’Adua has been in charge of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and biggest oil producer, for six months and is already struggling against endemic corruption and political infighting. Most observers agree that Yar’Adua is well-intentioned and more sincere than his predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo.
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/ 13 November 2007
Without its highway bridges spanning the lagoon, Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, would be paralysed. Every day, well before dawn, tens of millions of vehicles set out to cross bridges that were once the envy of the African continent. Deprived of maintenance, they are now showing signs of wear and tear.
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/ 13 November 2007
Without its immense motorway bridges spanning the lagoon, Lagos, the tentacular commercial capital of Nigeria, would be paralysed. Every day, well before dawn, tens of millions of vehicles set out to cross bridges that were the envy of the African continent back in the Seventies. Deprived of maintenance ever since, they are now showing signs of wear and tear.
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/ 11 November 2007
There is no fundamental justification for oil at a barrel and Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) member Nigeria is assuming that prices will not last at this level, Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia said on Saturday. He said that no one in Opec would be surprised if the price fell to in the next few weeks.
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/ 8 November 2007
Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’Adua has ratified revocation of Abuja plots allocated to him and other top citizens by former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, newspapers said here on Thursday. The country’s highest ruling body cited ”overriding public interests” for the revocation of the choice plots in the federal capital city.
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/ 29 October 2007
At least 30 people were burnt to death when a fully laden road tanker overturned and caught fire on a busy highway, Nigerian police said on Monday. The truck was conveying fuel from the commercial capital, Lagos, to the northern part of Africa’s most populous nation when it crashed and spilled its contents in the south-western Ogun state late on Sunday.
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/ 26 October 2007
Armed militants attacked an offshore oil platform operated by Italy’s ENI in south Nigeria early on Friday and seized seven foreign workers and one Nigerian, industrial and diplomatic sources said. The ENI group that owns the facility of its Agip subsidiary earlier stated that six workers had been seized in the attack.
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/ 26 October 2007
Gunmen attacked a support vessel to an Italian-operated oil-production facility off the coast of Nigeria on Friday, industry and security sources said. The attackers overpowered the vessel shortly before dawn and used it to attempt to board the Mystras production facility, operated by Saipem and SBM Offshore, forcing the facility to halt production.