Daily Independent (Lagos)
Adeola Yusuf (With Agency Reports)
22 May 2009
Lagos — The ongoing crisis at Nigeria's oil rich Niger Delta on Thursday made crude to trade above $62 a barrel.
The global oil market was filled with excitements with this six-month high price just as the federal government denied reports that as many as 1,000 civilians were killed in the on-going fighting.
The last time that oil prices reached this high was November, 2008 when the global meltdown got to its peak.
The government's Joint Task Force (JTF) is engaged in an onslaught against the militant groups in the region which contains majority of Nigeria 's petroleum resources.
Historically, increased unrest in Nigeria leads to speculation that oil supplies from the fifth-largest producer within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries would be cut. Benchmark crude for July delivery was down $1.16 to $60.88 a barrel by midday in Europe in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In London , Brent prices fell $1 to $59.59 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. Oil has surged about 75 percent since March on signs the global economy, while still struggling through a severe slowdown, may have avoided a worst-case scenario.
On Wednesday, the July contract rose $1.94 to settle at $62.04 after the government said U.S. crude inventories fell for a second week, suggesting demand may be improving.
Crude stockpiles dropped by 2.1 million barrels for the week ended May 15, according to Energy Department's Energy Information Administration. Gasoline inventories dropped by 4.3 million barrels.
That was a bigger decline than analysts had expected, especially for gasoline. Still, oil supplies remain at 19-year highs, and some analysts question whether the recent jump in prices is justified when demand remains weak.
"The inventory data is looking better but demand is still soft," said David Moore, commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney . "To my mind, the oil price has risen prematurely and ahead of fundamentals."
Moore 's comments were echoed by JBC Energy in Vienna , which predicted a "temporary downward correction on the horizon for the oil price." "Crude fundamentals are dramatically out of sync. At present, supply is still far exceeding demand," JBC said.
The oil rally has mirrored gains in stocks as investors bet the worst of the global economic downturn may be over.
"There's a broadly less pessimistic view of the international outlook, which is encouraging people to get into oil," Moore said.
Renewed clashes between government troops and militants in Nigeria , part of a long-standing dispute over the distribution of oil revenues from the Niger Delta, continued to support oil prices.
According to JBC Energy, the situation in the Niger Delta "appears to be worsening." JBC estimated that output in Africa 's largest crude exporter was down 900,000 barrels a day since the escalation of militant activity in the summer of 2005.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline for June delivery fell 3.02 cents to $1.7793 a gallon and heating oil dropped 3.05 cents to $1.5106 a gallon. Natural gas for June delivery slid 7.6 cents to $3.894 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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James Ibori was the governor of this state. During his time, Billions of petrol Dollar money was sunk in the state. He was currupt, and made no impact. He is an indegine.
NNDC was saddled with certain developmental responsibilities. Billions of petrol dollar money was sunk into it. Members of NNDC were all indegines.
Federal government in the past 10 years had sunk billions. All these money were stolen by the same leader of Niger Delta .. This does not exclude Executive Governors past and present, Chairmen of Local government in the states. These are the same people employing the service of the miscreants to preasure the Federal government to allocate more and more funds which have always gone under the drain.
Militants were remnants of criminals that were used by James Ibori to fight and won an illegitimate elections, he was also a miscreant during Abachas regime.
The criminal gangs are illitrates that have upturn a just struggle into a money making venture for themselves, and remained stooges of the likes of James Ibori and the gangs in government.
These miscreants should be stoped, not by the Federal government, not by the JTF, but by their irresponsible elders who encourages criminality in the name of struggle. This is because, at the end of time, their children, and great grand children will be the looser.
Biafra is instructive. Look at the possition of the Ibos today in the scheme of things in Nigeria since the civil war. While this is not commendable, any section of a whole (Federation) that attempted self determination in this manner is difficult to be trusted by others in future. Where is Ojukwu today???
I BELIEVE THIS IS THE WAR THAT WILL GIVE US INDEPENDENCE FROM NIGERIA. NIGER DELTA REPUBLIC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
sorry to say this, Nigeri as country lacks a sincere leader,hence everything goes in this nation. take for intsance we call ourselves oil gaint, without a REFINARY that is working to capacity and we are talking of exporting crud oil and importing PMS,what about the rest of the residue? this is what the leaders shold be considering not all this talk on we are trying to see how to get fule across the country.
This is not happening! And this statement credited to N'Allah - "What is happening in the Niger Delta is pure criminality of the highest order, arising from total disregard for constituted authority. In Iraq, thousands of people lost their lives because of an insurrection against the government during the reign of former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein. We can do away with 20 million militants for the rest 120 million Nigerians to live," - can not even be imagined in this century. The world can now see the type of idiots that unfair politics put in one of Nigeria's legislature. Thank Allah for the likes of Dr Davis Sokonte.
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