More Oil Lost

Nigeria lost 280,000 barrels daily of its crude output to attacks launched by armed militants in the Niger Delta oil region in the past five days, bringing currently shut output to about one million barrels a day, the state-run oil company said.

``Current shut-in production stands at about one million barrels a day, but it's not necessarily due to militant attacks,'' Levi Ajuonuma, spokesman for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. said by phone from the country's capital, Abuja, today. ``Only 28 percent (280,000 barrels) is because of militant action.''

The state oil company, also known as NNPC, holds the majority stake in five joint ventures with oil majors that produce more than 90 percent of Nigeria's crude oil. Operators of the joint ventures include Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Total and Eni Spa.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, the main militant group in the oil region, said it declared an ``oil war'' in the southern delta that accounts for nearly all of the country's oil after the military launched an offensive on Sept. 13 on its positions.

In the last five days the militant group, also known as MEND, has attacked pipelines and oil pumping stations run by the Nigerian units of Shell, Chevron and Eni.

In addition to output shut-ins caused by these attacks, Nigeria had accumulated shut-ins due to maintenance projects, leaking pipelines and previous violent disruptions, Ajuonuma said. Exxon Mobil, which has not experienced the recent attacks, has shut some of its production to carry out maintenance on its pipelines, he said.

`Closed for Maintenance'

``Some of the oil facilities attacked in recent days were already closed for maintenance,'' Ajuonuma said.

MEND says it's fighting on behalf of the inhabitants of the Niger Delta who have yet to share in the oil wealth of the region.

Nigeria has Africa's biggest hydrocarbon reserves, with more than 30 billion barrels of crude and 187 trillion cubic feet of gas and was the continent's biggest crude exporter in July and August, according to Bloomberg data. The West African country is the fifth-biggest source of U.S. oil imports.

(Bloomberg)