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/ 19 October 2007

Shell reopens gas plant in Nigeria

Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell has reopened a gas plant of 300-million standard cubit feet in southern Nigeria that was shut down last week because of a fire on its supply pipeline. ”Utorogu gas plant, which was shut in a bit to starve the fire, has reopened and gas supply is ramping up,” the company said in a statement late on Thursday.

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/ 27 September 2007

Africa flood crisis hits Nigeria, Burkina Faso

Floods that have left hundreds of thousands of Africans homeless across vast swathes of the continent have claimed 64 lives in Nigeria and 33 in Burkina Faso, government and aid officials said on Thursday. Nigeria’s Red Cross said the death toll covered a period since mid-July, while 22 000 people have been displaced in 10 sometimes arid northern states.

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/ 24 September 2007

Threat places oil companies on alert in Nigeria

Western oil companies reinforced security in Nigeria on Monday after a rebel group threatened to resume attacks on Africa’s largest oil industry, but security sources played down the risk of a major disruption. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta threatened fresh attacks on oil facilities.

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/ 23 August 2007

Curfew extended in Nigerian oil city

Authorities in southern Nigeria on Thursday officially extended a dusk-to-dawn curfew on Port Harcourt, the region’s oil capital, for a further week. ”The curfew is being extended for a further one week,” the state executive council announced. The curfew was put in place last Friday after the military battled local gangs, leaving dozens of people dead.

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/ 21 August 2007

Standard Bank buys control of Nigerian bank

South Africa’s Standard Bank has bought control of IBTC Chartered Bank, it’s adviser said on Tuesday, in the first foreign takeover of a Nigerian bank since a sector reform in 2005. Standard Bank had already secured a 33% stake in an agreed purchase last September and offered -million for a further 17% in a tender offer that closed on Monday night.

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/ 15 August 2007

Nigerian prison hell leaves Amnesty shocked

Conditions in Nigerian prisons are appalling with ”forgotten inmates” locked away for years without trial simply because their files have been lost, Amnesty International said on Wednesday. ”The circumstances under which the Nigerian government locks up its inmates are appalling,” the rights group said.

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/ 29 July 2007

Petrol-bunkering scandal rattles Nigeria

A corruption scandal is rattling Nigeria’s navy after officials revealed that two vice-admirals and eight officers now retired are suspected of having been involved in contraband petrol trafficking in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Contraband petrol represents a huge loss for Africa’s biggest oil-producing country.

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/ 6 July 2007

Nigerian opposition party rejects offer to join govt

A major Nigerian opposition party that is challenging President Umaru Yar’Adua’s electoral victory in court has rejected an offer to join his government because it considers it illegitimate, a party spokesperson said on Friday. Yar’Adua invited the three main opposition parties to join his government in an effort to offset a perceived lack of legitimacy after the April polls.

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/ 3 July 2007

Twenty 20 dead after boat capsizes in Nigeria

About 20 passengers drowned in the River Benue in central Nigeria when their dug-out boat capsized after hitting an object, police said on Tuesday. The boat was carrying about 40 passengers, mostly ethnic Fulani cattle herders fleeing from the district of Guma to the Benue state capital Makurdi after a dispute with local farmers.

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/ 24 June 2007

Four foreign oil hostages freed in Nigeria

Four foreign hostages employed by oil services giant Schlumberger were released unharmed on Saturday after more than three weeks in captivity, security sources said. The men, from Britain, France, The Netherlands and Pakistan, were abducted on June 1 from the company’s residential compound in Nigeria’s oil capital Port Harcourt by kidnappers disguised as riot police.

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/ 22 June 2007

Nigeria strike talks deadlocked

Nigeria’s crippling general strike entered its third day on Friday after overnight talks between labour unions and government ended in deadlock. Banks and schools remained closed across the country. The price of what little fuel was available on the black market continued to climb with public transport costing four times the usual price.

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/ 20 June 2007

Strike hits Nigeria, but oil keeps flowing

A strike in Africa’s top oil producer began on Wednesday after unions rejected government concessions on fuel prices as too little too late. The offices of Western oil companies operating in Nigeria were closed along with most other businesses, but oil production and exports were uninterrupted, company officials said.

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/ 18 June 2007

Gunmen occupy oil installation in Nigeria

Unidentified gunmen have occupied an oil pipeline-switching centre in Nigeria and are preventing local security forces from leaving, company officials said on Monday. About two dozen Nigerian workers and soldiers are being held after the attack on Sunday on a flow station in southern Bayelsa state, Italian energy giant Eni Spa said in a statement. No injuries were reported, it said.

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/ 12 June 2007

Nigeria leader moves to douse delta unrest

Nigeria’s new government is moving quickly to bring its oil-producing delta region back from the brink of anarchy, but violence in Africa’s top producer is still driving away investment. resident Umaru Yar’Adua’s early efforts to build confidence among militant leaders are already showing results and two armed groups have freed a total of 19 hostages.

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/ 11 June 2007

Nigerian militants to release foreign hostages

A Nigerian armed group fighting for control of oil resources in the Niger Delta region said on Monday that it will release all foreign hostages in its custody. The statement, purportedly from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, gave the names of ten captives it said it planned to release later in the day to two powerful local leaders.

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/ 8 June 2007

Nigeria’s ex-president goes back to university

Two weeks after stepping down as president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo is hitting the books and resuming university studies, close aides said on Friday. The 70-year-old retired general, who stepped down on May 29 having served a constitutional maximum of two four-year terms, began coursework at the National Open University in Lagos on Thursday.

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/ 2 June 2007

More oil workers seized in Nigeria

Gunmen disguised as riot police have abducted four foreign workers from the residential compound of oil-services giant Schlumberger in Nigeria’s oil city Port Harcourt, authorities said on Saturday. Kidnapping has become an almost daily occurrence in the anarchic Niger Delta, home to Africa’s largest oil industry, and about 30 foreigners are now being held.

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/ 1 June 2007

Gunmen kidnap three in southern Nigeria

Gunmen kidnapped three people, including Asian expatriates, from the residential compound of chemical company Indorama in oil-rich southern Nigeria on Friday, a senior police officer said. ”There was an attack on the Indorama residential compound. Three people were taken,” Rivers State Police Commissioner Felix Ogbaudu said.

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/ 26 May 2007

Nigerian oil unions end strike

Nigerian oil unions have suspended a two-day strike in the national oil company after the government agreed to a pay rise and other benefits, a union leader said. The strike had threatened to halt oil shipments from the world’s eighth-largest exporter and worsened fuel shortages across Nigeria.

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/ 25 May 2007

Nigerian oil strike spreads to export terminals

Nigerian oil unions pulled many staff from crude export terminals on the second day of a strike on Friday, but shipments from the world’s eighth largest exporter were uninterrupted, authorities said. The strike by union members in the national oil company and the Department of Petroleum Resources, the industry regulator, began on Thursday.

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/ 25 May 2007

South African among six kidnapped in Nigeria

Gunmen kidnapped six foreign oil workers including a South African from a ship off the coast of Nigeria on Friday, industry sources said, bringing to 22 the number of foreigners held in Africa’s top oil producer. Shots were fired during the abduction by suspected militants in two speed boats, which took place off the coast of the Niger Delta.