Nigeria: US Offers Nigeria Military Aid to Protect Offshore Oil

26 July 2004

Lagos — THE United States, keen to develop new sources of oil supply outside the Middle East, has offered to help Nigeria protect the flow of oil in the Gulf of Guinea and combat terrorist attacks on the oil industry, officials said. The Gulf of Guinea, stretching from Liberia in the west to Angola in the south, currently provides about 15 per cent of US oil supplies. That share is expected to grow to 25 per cent by 2015, according to a recent report commissioned for the U.S. Congress.

Deputy Commander of the US European Command, General Charles Wald, met Nigeria's Defence Minister Roland Oritsejafor and military chiefs in the capital, Abuja recently and they discussed how the United States could help Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, to improve security for the oil industry throughout the region.

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