Nigeria rebels declare war

[Aidoneus]

Nigeria rebels declare war
Tuesday 28 September 2004

A rebel group fighting government troops in the oil-rich Niger delta has said it will launch "all-out war on the Nigerian state" from the beginning of next month.

Advising all oil companies to shut production by 1 October, the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force also advised foreigners to leave the delta in a communique issued after a meeting of its central command on Monday.

The rebel group's leader, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, accused Royal Dutch Shell, Nigeria's largest oil producer, and Italy's Agip, a unit of ENI, of "collaboration with the Nigerian state in acts of genocide against our people".

Asari said his group would not attack oil installations because it did not want to pollute the delta environment, but foreign oil workers would be targeted.

--snip--

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/37E038D8-C700-4267-8FC9-F18E34609A24.htm

[htuttle]

1. $50/barrel by the end of this week

I lost a bet the last time it got close, but this time I feel 'lucky' (some luck, though...).

[Aidoneus]

2. $50/barrel by now

forget end of the week..

[durablend]

4. $60/barrel by the end of next month

If it even takes THAT long...

[mom cat]

8. Welcome to DU bush_has_to_go! No way the House of Saud can

help dimson out with this one.

:hi:

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Are you really sticking your neck out that much?

"US light crude closed at a record price of $49.64 and in post-market electronic trading, struck $50 a barrel.
...
Traders also cited recent clashes between Saudi Arabian police and suspected Islamic militants in the Saudi capital Riyadh for forcing prices up.

John Kilduff, senior vice president for energy at Fimat USA, said he believed prices would rise to at least $51 a barrel in the next few days.

"The hits just keep coming," he said. "The damage to production in the Gulf of Mexico will haunt the market for some time." "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3692616.stm

you shouldn't get great odds for that bet.

[htuttle]

6. Guess not!

Didn't see that one. Did it actually close above $50 today? Last time, it flirted around between $49 and $50, but never closed above $50. Psychological barrier, maybe.

Didn't get long odds though. Just $5 either way.

[Vox_Reason]

5. I'd say $60 in 2 weeks with news like this wouldn't be surprising

The sad thing is that we will NEVER see $25/barrel crude again.

High-priced oil... I wonder who benefits from that?

[puerco-bellies]

7. I do..

Go long the crude baby!
P.S. Don't hate the player, hate the game!
P-B

[Jack Rabbit]

9. BBC link

From the BBC Online
Dated Tuesday September 28 09:19 GMT (2:19 amp PDT)

Oil workers threatened in Nigeria

Foreign workers in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta have been warned to leave the region by a local militia.
The group said foreign oil companies must cease production or face "all-out war" from 1 October.

The militia says it is fighting for the liberation of the Ijaw people. Local authorities say they merely oil thieves and dismiss their threat.

Nigeria is the world's seventh largest exporter of oil, but 70% of the population live in poverty . . . .

Dokubo Asari, the leader of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force, told the BBC that all foreign nationals should withdraw from the region with immediate effect.

He said his group would not take responsibility for any harm that befalls a foreigner after his release of a communique threatening to escalate violence.

He added that expatriates - who in this region are predominantly oil workers - could only return when fundamental issues of resource control and self-determination had been resolved.

Read more.

[bemildred]

10. The bright light of freedom we have lighted in Iraq

spreads to Africa. I guess the "rebels" noticed how easy
it is to kidnap civilians and sabotage oil infrastructure,
and I don't suppose tracking them down in the Nigerian jungle
will be any easier than in the Iraqi desert.

I wonder whether the goal is actual political liberation,
whatever that would mean, or maybe just to negotiate a better
slice of the oil pie.

[Jack Rabbit]

11. That's one of the dangers here

The Nigerian government is trying to portray Asari as a common bandit. I wouldn't take their word for it, but it's possible that all we have here is a self-interested thug harping a populist line in order to gain support among the locals, making his operations easier to carry out.

[reprobate]

12. I believe the goal of all the muslimfighting groups is anti-corporate.

Most of the poor world sees the corporate fascist gov't of the US (and most western gov'ts as the real problem (and some of us might agree) and they are using oil production as the tool to destroy it.

They have seen, as we have seen that there is basically no chance that we will push for alternative fuels because the petroleum industry controls (with a few other critical industries like the media) our gov't. They know how tied our economy is to oil. To make oil not just more expensive, but more difficult to distribute in order to cause disruption in our economy is their goal, and our gov't has no way to fight that.