Nigerian Times

Over 100 people have been killed in a pipeline blast Thursday afternoon, in the Ijegun suburb on the outskirts of Lagos. The fire started when the oil pipeline was ruptured by a road construction bulldozer. Several people, houses and schools nearby were engulfed by the flames and fumes of the pipeline fire as it spread. Many residents have fled the location and the injured have been taken to nearby hospitals in Lagos. More than 200 people were killed in a similar pipeline fire on Friday May 12, 2006, and they were given a mass burial. Pipeline explosions are common in the world's eighth-largest oil exporter where over 2, 000 people have been killed in previous oil pipeline explosions often caused by ruptured pipelines vandalized by illegal oil bunkerers. The oil pipelines run through the swamps and creeks from the Niger Delta and crisscrossing villages and towns to reach other parts of the most populous country in Africa where the majority of the people are poor and cut off fr...

Mr. Steve Mufson, I have already posted the following commentary in my response to your article on Nigerian Militant Speaks Out on Oil . The critical issues I have raised should be addressed in your reaction to the e-mails from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). I am right here in the Niger Delta and my families stretch from Opobo to Buguma to Ikot Amba to Abia. I am on locations in Bonny and Port Harcourt. So, I can tell the truth from my eye-witness accounts. I have addressed the Niger Delta crisis on the BBC and on the Nigerian Times International Forum and Nigerian Times blog. See: Nigerian Times: SHELL, ASARI DOKUBO AND THE NIGER DELTA CRISIS I support the just cause of MEND, but what has the leaders of MEND done with the millions of dollars they have made from illegal oil bunkering and ransoms from the foreign oil workers they kidnapped and released? Most of the leaders of these so called militant groups are partners in crime with the oligarchy of the ru...

One Naval officer was killed and another was wounded, Monday morning, when unidentified gunmen on a speedboat attacked the Naval Escort boat of a Nigeria LNG Ferry in the dangerous waterways of the volatile Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Last year, militants suspected to be led by the notorious Ateke Tom attacked and killed two Nigerian Police escorts on a Nigeria LNG ferry carrying passengers across the Bonny Channel. The waterways of the Niger Delta region have become dangerous since militants on speedboats terrorized and kidnapped hundreds of foreign oil workers, some local staff, and members of their families for huge ransoms. They have also attacked oil installations and reduced the oil export of Nigeria, the largest oil producer in Africa, and the fifth largest oil supplier to the United States of America. The Niger Delta militants and kidnappers have accomplices in the Nigerian Armed Forces and the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). They have been engaged in illegal o...

15 Jan 2008 19:09 Africa/Lagos OPEC's Total Crude Oil Output Rose to 32 Million Barrels Per Day in December, a Platts Survey Shows LONDON, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) produced an average 32.03 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil in December, according to a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials January 14. This is up from November's rate of 31.65 million b/d. Production from OPEC's ten members bound by crude output agreements averaged 27.43 million b/d in December, the survey showed. This is 460,000 b/d more than in November and 177,000 b/d higher than the group's 27.253 million b/d target which came into effect at the beginning of November. "The increase in supply is certainly welcome to this market," said John Kingston, Platts Global Director of Oil. "It appears the group's on track to meet its January target, which is nearly 29.7 million barrels per day for ...

Nigeria: Industrial Lockout at the Nigeria LNG The strike started by the Nigerian contract staff of the Nigeria LNG Limited on Monday became worse early Wednesday as the aggrieved Nigerian contractors embarked on a lockout of the Nigeria LNG Port Harcourt office and Bonny Plant Complex in Rivers state in the volatile Niger Delta region . The Nigerian contract staff of the Nigeria LNG in Rivers state embarked on a lockout of the Nigeria LNG Port Harcourt office and Bonny Plant Complex, Wednesday, to reinforce the industrial strike they started on Monday. The lockout is to prevent the permanent staff from working. The senior management of the Nigeria LNG limited is meeting with the contractors to resolve the industrial dispute over the unprofessional maltreatment of the Nigerian contract staff and the deprivation of other benefits. The Nigeria LNG Limited does not allow the Nigerian contract staff to benefit from the excellent medical services at the Nigeria LNG Hospital on Bonny Island,...