Violence in oil-rich Nigeria boosts prices

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By Shaun Waterman THE WASHINGTON TIMES

With oil prices at a six-month high and gasoline prices not far behind, energy traders are pointing a finger at rising violence in Nigeria's ethnically driven civil war.

A wave of attacks on oil wells, platforms and pipelines by rebels in Nigeria's Niger Delta has left the country's output at about half its maximum level of 3.2 million barrels a day, the government's Minister of State for Petroleum Odein Ajumogobia told reporters in the capital, Abuja.

The spike in attacks follows a major military offensive in the resource-rich delta, where ethnic Ijaw militants are fighting for greater autonomy and a bigger share of oil revenues,.

The fighting demonstrates how remote and little-understood struggles can have dramatic effects on Americans' daily lives. Nigeria is the fifth-largest foreign supplier of oil to the United States, meaning that disruptions there directly affect energy prices here.

JBC Energy, a Vienna, Austria-based firm, says concern over the renewed violence in Nigeria has contributed to a spike to $62 a barrel for oil - a six-month high. In the Washington area, gasoline prices in recent weeks have risen about 25 cents a gallon to an average of$2.30 for regular grade.

The Nigerian oil and gas industry has been operating at reduced capacity since the rebels began their campaign in earnest in 2006, and traders are worried about the potential for increased disruption.

"Over the last several years, [the rebels] have shown they have the capacity to severely disrupt oil production, not just in Delta state but in other states," Mark Schroeder, director of sub-Saharan analysis at the global security firm Stratfor, told The Washington Times.

Last week, Nigerian government troops launched what they call "Operation Restore Hope," aimed at rooting out rebel factions that operate under the umbrella of a group called MEND, or Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.

Local media say it is the federal government's largest offensive in the area in years.

About 7,000 troops of the country's Joint Task Force (JTF) are involved, backed by two warships and helicopter gunships, the Nigerian daily newspaper Vanguard reported. Their first target was a militant base known as Camp Five near the Delta state capital of Warri.