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[Adventurer]

Blood Oil

Could a bunch of Nigerian militants in speedboats bring about a U.S. recession? Blowing up facilities and taking hostages, they are wreaking havoc on the oil production of America's fifth-largest supplier. Deep in the Niger-delta swamps, the author meets the nightmarish result of four decades of corruption.

by Sebastian Junger February 2007

On June 23, 2005, a group of high-ranking government officials were convened in a ballroom of the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C., to respond to a simulated crisis in the global oil supply. The event was called "Oil ShockWave," and it was organized by public-interest groups concerned with energy policy and national security. Among those seated beneath a wall-size map of the world were two former heads of the C.I.A., the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The scenario they were handed was this:

Civil conflict breaks out in northern Nigeria�an area rife with Islamic militancy and religious violence�and the Nigerian Army is forced to intervene. The situation deteriorates, and international oil companies decide to end operations in the oil-rich Niger River delta, resulting in a loss of 800,000 barrels a day on the world market. Since Nigerian oil is classified as "light sweet crude," meaning that it requires very little refining, this makes it a particularly painful loss to the American market. Concurrently, in this scenario, a cold wave sweeping across the Northern Hemisphere boosts global demand by 800,000 barrels a day. Because global oil production is already functioning at close to maximum capacity (around 84 million barrels a day), small disruptions in supply shudder through the system very quickly. A net deficit of almost two million barrels a day is a significant shock to the market, and the price of a barrel of oil rapidly goes to more than $80.


http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/02/junger200702?printable=true&currentPage=all

[ddeubel]

And the official answer/reply?

Given their "genius", it was probably,

A) invade and take control. Kill many Nigerians and label them Islamic insurgents. Mission, helping to bring stability.

B) Buy Exxon stock. Think of further ways to create profit and shareholder value.

C) Both A and B

Very interesting article, a great one. I loved the description of some of the "rebels".

Here is a link to one of my fav. authors, Wole Solyinka. An interview he gave which gives some insight into the future of Nigeria. He ends the interview with this notion of "what is Nigeria".

[cbclark4]

"Oil workers abducted in Nigeria (Al Jazeera)
Fighters in the Niger Delta have broken into an oil services base in southern Nigeria and are reported to have abducted nine South Korean workers and a Nigerian.

On Wednesday, armed men broke into a Daewoo Engineering and Construction company-operated site in Bayelsa state, using dynamite to blow up part of an office building.

Han Sang-ho, a Daewoo employee at the site, told Korean television reporters: "The militants entered the facility armed with guns and dynamite before dawn.

"There was an exchange of gunshots and they broke in with dynamite."

Daewoo has confirmed that nine of its employees, all South Koreans, had been captured."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/59309B34-FF11-44CF-9D43-DB564B3B78B2.htm

"Officer seized in Nigeria attack (al Jazeera)
Armed men in seven speedboats have attacked a Nigerian armed forces patrol boat in Rivers state in the oil-producing Niger Delta and kidnapped one officer.

Four other troops in the patrol boat managed to get away during the attack on Sunday, which took place near Okrika, an island on the outskirts of the delta's main city, Port Harcourt, according to three security experts working for oil companies in the delta.

The Nigerian army and navy spokesmen said they had no information about the incident, while a spokesman for the joint armed forces unit that is in charge of security in Rivers could not be reached.

It was not clear if the kidnapping was the work of ransom-seekers or of rebels seeking to press political demands. Okrika is a stronghold of a well-known local militia, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0AFE235B-71D8-4C17-8B1B-9A7FBCC42736.htm

cbc