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In Bold Push Forward, Islamist Militants Attack a Major Nigerian City

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Maiduguri, the major city in Nigeria’s northeast, came under sustained attack from Boko Haram terrorists on Sunday, and officials here called it the group’s most audacious assault on the city to date. By early afternoon, the attackers had been beaten back, but not before dozens of soldiers had been killed, officials said. They said the insurgents had taken a major military base to the north of the city, sending about 1,400 soldiers fleeing into the bush. The attack on this city of more than two million people, a commercial and administrative hub, began late Saturday when the militants from the Islamist insurgency rushed in from at least two directions. Loud explosions could be heard in the center of the city, as well as small-arms fire and artillery in its suburbs. The attack was a significant thrust forward in a creeping campaign that began last summer to […]

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Nigeria: Trans-Forcados Pipelines Attacked Four Times This Year

Abuja — The Trans-Forcados pipelines which carries crude oil from production facilities to export terminals in Forcados has been attacked four times by vandals and oil thieves, since the beginning of this year alone. Executive Director, Gas and Power, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. David Ige who disclosed this in Abuja at the weekend noted that besides the loss of thousands of barrels every day, about 1000 million cubic feet per day of gas are lost too. Ige explained that the loss of gas from the pipelines means several power plants are also shut down. "We have had the vandalisation of Trans Forcados Pipeline almost once every week for the last couple of weeks and it is not just a recent outage. From the first of January this year and today, the pipe has been vandalized, we fixed it and it is vandalized again and again and we […]

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Beleaguered, Nigerians Seek to Restore a General to Power

KADUNA, Nigeria — Boisterous crowds packed the streets for the retired general, while young men climbed lampposts, walls and billboards to glimpse his gaunt face. Others danced on careening motorcycles, brandishing homemade brooms, symbols of his campaign. With Nigeria ’s presidential election only weeks away, Boko Haram’s unchecked rampaging here in the country’s north is helping to propel the 72-year-old general, Muhammadu Buhari, to the forefront. After ruling Nigeria with an iron hand 30 years ago as the country’s military leader, Mr. Buhari is now a serious threat at the ballot box, analysts say, in large part because of Boko Haram’s blood-soaked successes. “The state is collapsing and everybody is frightened,” Jibrin Ibrahim, a political scientist with the Center for Democracy and Development in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, said of Boko Haram. “They are able to capture more and more territory, but also increase the level of atrocity,” he […]

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Nigeria: Crude Oil Export to Europe, Asia Drop

By Hamisu Muhammad With Agency Report Nigeria’s crude oil export to Europe and Asia, two of the country’s key markets, declined by 6.6 million barrels in September 2014, further reducing the country’s oil revenue at a time the plunge in global oil prices entered its third month. Report by Ship and Port online reported yesterday that the fall in oil prices, which began in June 2014 when prices peaked at $115 per barrel, had led to a decline in the country’s oil earnings, the major part of government revenue. According to the latest monthly report from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, export to Europe which is Nigeria’s biggest regional market, tumbled to 29.2 million barrels in September from 33.6 million in August last year. The Asian region, which is the major target market for many oil exporters, reduced its import of Nigeria’s crude oil by 4.4 million barrels in […]

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Nigeria: Oil Price Slide Threatens 20 Percent Jobs

Lagos — The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has said that the nation’s oil and gas sector would suffer 20 percent job losses due to the sliding price of crude oil at the international market. General Secretary of the union, Comrade Bayo Olowoshile, who disclosed this in an interview with our correspondent also said expected investment in oil exploration and production would be in abeyance until there is sure profit margin stability. He also said the energy sector would suffer the chance of easy access to domestic gas requirements, adding that the development would slow down the hope in power generation and distribution despite the tariff review. He spoke on the way forward for the nation’s oil and gas sector and urged the federal government to stimulate local refining of petroleum white products and petrochemical products in 2015. He also advocated the need for […]

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Shell to Pay $83 Million Settlement for Nigeria Oil Spills

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) agreed to pay compensation to thousands of residents of the Bodo community in Nigeria’s crude-rich Niger River delta region for two “highly regrettable” oil spills in 2008. Shell will pay a total of 55 million pounds ($83.3 million) with “an individual payment to each claimant who accepts the settlement agreement in compensation for losses arising from the spills,” the Hague-based company said today in a statement. The settlement follows a three-year legal tussle between Shell and 15,600 Nigerians from Ogoniland, mostly fishermen, in a London court. “From the outset, we’ve accepted responsibility for the two deeply regrettable operational spills in Bodo,” Mutiu Sunmonu, managing director of Shell’s Nigerian unit, said in the statement. “We’ve always wanted to compensate the community fairly and we are pleased to have reached agreement.” The compensation is split 35 million pounds for individuals and 20 million pounds for the […]

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Falling Oil Price Poses Tough Challenge for West African Rulers

ENLARGE Cameroon’s President Paul Biya and his wife, Chantal Biya, arrive for a White House dinner in August. Reuters Some of Africa’s most entrenched leaders are facing an unprecedented challenge from an unexpected foe: falling oil prices. Rulers of a cluster of nations along Africa’s oil-rich Atlantic coast have long used crude revenue to consolidate their power, reward political allies and subsidize basic goods and services. As oil prices decline, that formula for maintaining power looks increasingly inadequate for rulers such as Angola’s José Eduardo dos Santos. “If the drop in prices continues, he will be in free fall,” said Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, a political scientist at the University of Oxford. For more than 30 years in office, Mr. dos Santos has relied on the proceeds from oil sales. If that revenue continues to shrink, “the very assumption that this regime is able to weather all sorts of […]

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Nigeria: Shell Loses 30,000 BPD to Oil Thieves

Royal Dutch oil giant, the Shell Petroleum Development Company, (SPDC) said it loses on the average some 30,000 barrels of crude oil every day. The company said oil thieves operating in the Niger Delta region are stealing its crude oil and has expressed worries over the increasing rate of oil theft in the area. Pipeline Asset Manager of the company, Mr. Jurgen Jansen, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, said recently that some oil thieves tampered with one of the company’s major oil export pipelines, a 24 inch TNP around Okolo lounge, adding that the development resulted in a major loss of barrels of crude oil. According to Shell, a lot of illegal oil refining takes place in the Oloko lounge, a situation the company said had brought about severe pollution of the environment. Jansen added that a total of 243 illegal connections were made on its major pipelines in […]

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Nigeria: Oil Exports to Dip in February

By Chika Amanze-Nwachuku And Alike Ejiofor With Agency Report Nigerian crude oil exports in February are set to fall to around 1.87 million barrels per day (bpd) from around 2.03 million bpd in January, shipping lists showed on Tuesday. This is just as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the swing oil producer, has maintained that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will not cut production even if the price of oil drops to $20 a barrel, adding that it will be unfair to expect the cartel to reduce output if non-members do not. According to Reuters, Nigeria’s export levels for February are expected to be lower due to less of the benchmark Qua Iboe grade, traders said, citing expected maintenance by ExxonMobil at its Eket terminal. However, exports levels were still higher than for much of 2014, as there was relatively strong production of other Nigerian grades such […]

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Oil’s Slump Gives Nigeria Chance to End $7-Billion Fuel Subsidy

The tumbling oil prices that have slashed Nigeria’s revenue and roiled currency and stock markets in Africa’s biggest economy may have a silver lining: an excuse for the government to scrap fuel subsidies that cost as much as $7 billion a year. It’s an opportunity President Goodluck Jonathan , concerned that such a move would provoke protests before his bid for re-election in February, may not seize, analysts say. “Politics often trumps prudence and there’s an entrenched social expectation for fuel to be subsidized,” Gareth Brickman an analyst at Johannesburg-based ETM Analytic said in a Nov. 28 e-mailed response to questions. “The last time subsidies were reduced there were widespread protests, and given how contentious the political environment is in Nigeria with the elections and on-going ethnic divisions, it is likely this will be the case again.” Nigeria relies on refined fuel imports to meet more than 70 percent […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple