Letters

Niger Delta

How It's Used

"Rosemary Douglas has no connection to the oil business that pumps more than two million barrels of crude a day from beneath the swampy Niger Delta. But the violence surrounding it pierced her home in September anyway, when a bullet shattered her upper left arm as she napped with her 2-year-old daughter."

"Fadel Gheit, oil analyst with the New York brokerage Oppenheimer & Co, told a US senate committee before Christmas that at least $40 of the $100 should be attributed to market hype and specula tion. Few doubt that some traders are buying oil as a hedge against a falling dollar. Certainly this betting on rises and falls in the markets has increased volatility but oil prices have always been affected by political uncertainty, whether that be the threat of disruption to production facilities by armed bands in the Niger delta, for instance, or fears of military action by the US against Iran over its nuclear programme."

"The recent slump in Nigeria's oil output may have been disastrous for Africa's largest oil producer, but problems could worsen.

"In a recent email to journalists, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta -- the group that claims credit for most of the attacks on crude-oil facilities in Africa's largest producing country -- said it will step up its campaign against the oil companies. MEND says its action is intended to force the government to remit more centrally controlled oil funds to their impoverished region."

"It is unsurprising that Obama's first visit as president to sub-Saharan Africa, an Obama-obsessed region that views him as a native son, would inspire continental envy. But in a country where democratic expression has been stunted by flawed elections, the move has given critics a fresh opportunity to stick it to their government. They call it a clear indictment of Nigeria's ever-present corruption, President Umaru Yar'Adua's slow progress, the conflict in the oil-rich Niger Delta and what some here see as cooled relations with the United States."

“I met with oilmen in Houston, princes in Riyadh, warlords in the Niger Delta, roughnecks in Baku, warlords in the Niger Delta, leftists in Caracas, billionaires in Moscow, environmentalists in Quito, generals in Baghdad, traders in Manhattan, wildcatters in Midland, and diplomats in London.”

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