Bab El Mandeb Strait Tanker News reports appearing Sunday, of an attack on Shell and Agip pipelines in Nigeria, indicated that ongoing attacks by militant groups have caused that country’s oil production to fall by half. Meanwhile, memories are still fresh of a flare-up between Azerbaijan and Armenia in April, which directly threatened pipelines to Turkey and Europe. These flashpoints on the peripheries of the Middle East show the enormous geographic spread of security-related supply disruptions. “We are seeing at the moment that oil prices have risen about 80 percent in three months, admittedly from very low levels, due to supply disruptions in Nigeria, Libya, Canada and Venezuela,” says Robin Mills, head of Qamar Energy in Dubai. “It’s clear that a further disruption in the Middle East would add to volatility in prices. The big question is how much and how quickly US shale production could respond to cap […]