The Peakist

The main militants group in Nigeria’s oil producing Niger Delta say it will not extend its month-long ceasefire which expired yesterday, reports the BBC. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) says it has been kept on the sidelines of government-led talks about the region’s future. Mend also condemned the killing of civilians during a recent military crackdown in the area. Mend called the truce to give the new Nigerian leader time to set up talks. (more…)

The Observer ran an excellent piece on the detriorating security situation in the Niger Delta, placing the conflict between the Ijaw MEND movement, the Nigerian state and the oil companies firmly in the context of world depletion. A fascinating element of the movement is how magic charm wearing rebel fighters are linked by the mobile phone network to internet activists - a rebel army in one of the poorest parts of the world fronted by a mysterious online entity. If the journalists contacts are to be believed the rebels are preparing a full scale shut down of Niger Delta’s oil exports. Once again the world economy is ransomed by a handfull of committed, armed men.

“For decades, the oil-rich delta of the Niger river has been plundered by western companies and rampant political corruption. But now a small group of ruthless Ijaw tribesmen are threatening to sabotage production unless their demands for compensation are met. Sebastian Junger heads into the secretive mangrove swamps to meet the waterborne warriors who are prepared to trigger a global meltdown
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As America and Europe diversify oil and gas supplies away from the volatile Persian Gulf, West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea is set to become its counterweight, argue Andy Rowell, James Marriott & Lorne Stockman in “The Next Gulf: London, Washington and Oil Conflict in Nigeria.”

“Since 9/11, the Gulf of Guinea has gained unprecedented strategic importance to the US and its allies. Washington wants the region’s oil and gas resources and is prepared to protect its access with military might. Nigeria is the biggest oil and gas producer in the region and therefore central to US strategy.

Forgotten in this new scramble for African resources are the people of the Niger Delta, who have received little benefit from 50 years of oil production in their midst.” (more…)

Money no object as the big players grab what is left of a diminishing resource

Terry Macalister reported in the Guardian on the huge prices oil companies are now paying for exploration rights - yet another signal of the unfolding depletion crisis and the shifting sands of global geopolitics as China positions itself for the oil end game and the producer nations gain unprecendented economic leverage. (more…)

Crude price rises as attacks disrupt supply
Shell evacuates staff after pipeline targeted

Rory Carroll Africa correspondent Larry Elliott
Tuesday February 21, 2006
The Guardian

Militants in the Niger delta mounted fresh attacks on oil installations yesterday, extending a wave of sabotage which has crippled exports from Africa’s leading oil producer. The guerrillas seized a Nigerian army post in waterways east of the city of Warri after soldiers fled, allowing them to dynamite a floating barracks block and an oil pipeline operated by Royal Dutch Shell. A Shell spokeswoman confirmed the oil pipeline attack, and said the boat was abandoned when the attackers blew it up. It was unclear who owned the boat. The Anglo-Dutch multinational, the biggest foreign operator in Nigeria, has evacuated all its facilities in the immediate area, a stretch of creeks and swamps which normally produces 500,000 barrels a day.

The attacks sent oil prices surging in London amid concern that the world’s eighth largest producer was facing months of turmoil. Despite reassurances from the International Energy Agency (IEA), threats of further action from the rebels against installations in the Niger delta pushed up the price of a barrel of Brent crude by $1.46 to $61.35 in the City. Geoff Pyne, an independent oil consultant, said: “There is a realisation that no one can be complacent about supplies.” (more…)