Nigeria’s oil production capacity has been cut to 631,000 barrels per day (bpd), or some 25 percent of the country’s total output, following attacks on a major pipeline belonging to Italy oil giant Agip.
According to a story posted on From the Wilderness. The pipeline in the oil-rich Niger Delta was reported blown up on Friday night.
It appears that inhabitants of the Delta, of the Ijaw tribe, have demanded payment for the oil extracted by Western oil companies and reparations for environmental damage caused by drilling and operations, and being summarily rebuffed by the national government (reputedly thoroughly corrupt) and the companies involved, have taken direct action. A group called the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has been formed and taken credit for attacks on oil installations and the taking of hostages.
The relevance to the War for Oil is this: Nigeria is Africa’s top oil producer and the world’s eighth biggest oil exporter. As I have predicted, the war is taking the oil off line.
Of ten oil hostages taken earlier, the three Westerners, two Americans and one Briton, are still being held.
This is a pattern we shall get used to.
No deep thoughts here; merely a note that the unraveling progresses. You probably didn’t see this on CNN.