So, it all boils down to oil, eh? But who cares about Nigeria?
Hopes lift on Nigeria peace pledge
Wednesday, June 2, 2004 Posted: 1:44 AM EDT (0544 GMT)
WARRI, Nigeria (AP) -- Rival ethnic militants in Nigeria's troubled oil-rich southern delta have pledged peace after the killings of two American oil workers prompted a government crackdown on a yearlong spree of bloodletting.
[...]
The escalating violence in the Niger Delta, where the bulk of Nigeria's oil is drilled, has forced multinational firms to shut some wells and pipeline facilities and turn their attention offshore in recent years.
Nigeria is the world's seventh-largest oil exporter and the fifth-largest supplier to the United States. For weeks last year, the crisis cut the country's production by nearly one-quarter, and production has yet to fully return to normal this year.
Both ethnic groups also accused oil firms of fanning the violence with "divide-and-rule tactics," including payoffs to militants from one side to protect oil sites from the other.
Oil company officials privately admit being forced to pay "security fees" to local thugs in order to prevent hostage-takings, sabotage and other attacks.
Although the peace promise offered new hope, oil multinationals ChevronTexaco and Royal Dutch/Shell said it was too soon to return to swampland wells and pipeline facilities.
"We do welcome any peace initiatives and we support any efforts made," said Don Boham, spokesman for Shell's Nigerian subsidiary. "Yet it is too early to see what the results are."
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