Nigeria's Petroleum Industry Reeling

[hatrack]

OMADINO, Nigeria - "In unrest comparable in scale to Chechnya and Colombia, a year of bloodletting has killed more than 1,000 in the oil-rich Niger Delta - leaving the world's No. 7 oil exporter, and people here, concerned for the future. Tensions over oil revenues have aggravated ethnic strife. Kidnappings and sabotage have escalated, forcing costly shutdowns by companies pumping crude in the oil-rich swamps of the volatile Niger Delta.

Here at Omadino, just the sound of speedboats was enough to send villagers fleeing one day recently. "They were afraid. They just ran away," said Gabriel Walter, 42, the only resident who stayed to meet visiting journalists. Walter would not say whether it was Nigerian security forces or ethnic militants that the townspeople feared. Both groups are known to go on killing rampages.

The growing insecurity in Nigeria's most lucrative industry comes as oil prices briefly hit a record intraday trading high Tuesday of $44.24 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That followed a heightened U.S. terror alert and supply concerns in Russia and OPEC, of which Nigeria is a key member.

EDIT

Royal Dutch/Shell, Nigeria's largest oil operation, which produces half the 2.5 million barrels Nigeria exports daily, also is reeling. A confidential 93-page security report commissioned by Shell in December 2003 and obtained by The Associated Press and other news organizations warns that mounting attacks by criminals and ethnic militants could force the oil giant to abandon its onshore operations in the delta by 2008. Shell spokesman Simon Buerk rejects the possibility of a company pullout. "We don't agree with that conclusion. We are committed to our operations in Nigeria," Buerk told the AP."

EDIT

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/world/9354183.htm

[phantom power]

1. is anyone else getting really, really tired of depending on foreign oil...

or is it just me?

(edit) and I'm not that crazy about depending on domestic oil, either.