Abuja — More than a week after an outbreak of ethnic violence in the oil-rich Delta region of Nigeria, the army sent by the government to quell the disturbances claims to have tightened its control on the volatile conflict zone.
But military action has done little to reassure world petroleum markets or steady oil production, with overall output down by around 40 percent since the major companies operating in the Delta closed most of their production and exporting facilities last week.
Nigeria is the worlds sixth largest oil producer and number one in Africa.
Reuters reported oil companies saying that daily production of more than 800,000 barrels remained stalled Tuesday, because of ethnic clashes between the Ijaw and the Itsekiri communities.
The fighting helped drive up world oil prices. But Mondays gains were still well short of recent near $40-a-barrel highs.
Nigeria normally pumps about 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) and exports up to 1.8 million bpd, according to Reuters, making it the eighth biggest oil exporter in the world.
Anglo-Dutch giant Shell, Americas ChevronTexaco and French company TotalFinaElf have all virtually shut down operations in the Niger Delta.
Clearly we wont send workers back until it is safe and all we can do for now is to monitor the situation and hope for a peaceful solution, a ChevronTexaco spokesman told Reuters, after closing all its facilities in the western Niger Delta Sunday.
He said staff had been pulled out of the companys Escravos export terminal, in western Niger Delta, along with some local people who fled the violence between rival ethnic groups and Nigerian security forces, dispatched to the area by the authorities in the capital, Abuja, to try to bring the situation under control.
In London, a spokesman for Shell said production of 370,000 barrels a day of the companys Nigerian output remained closed. Shell has shut its 50,000 bpd Bonny operations to the east of the Delta and 320,000 bpd output from Forcados in the west.
TotalFinaElf has closed its Uponami field, which produces 7,500 barrels per day.
World markets hit
Reports quoting traders from London said oil refiners were scrambling for alternatives to the popular crude oil supplies from Nigeria, which are easy to refine, in a bid to avoid a shortfall as the demand for high quality gasoline rises.
There is high demand for Nigerias light-sweet crude output, which is good for converting into gasoline, making it popular for Americas gas-guzzling vehicles. Nigeria is one of the top six oil exporters to the United States, topping more than 560,000 bpd.
Options for refiners have already been sharply reduced by disruptions in oil supplies from other countries also facing disturbances, such as Venezuela since December; most recently, they have seen the loss of crude exports from Iraq, since the US-led military offensive began last week.
Traders in Asia said an estimated six very large crude carriers (VLCC) of Nigerian output were scheduled for lifting to the Asian market in March and April, leaving refiners hunting for alternative crude oil supplies.
Ijaw warnings
At the heart of the conflict are youths in the Niger Delta from the local Ijaw community, which claims to be the majority ethnic group in the area. They complain that they have been marginalised by central government and receive virtually none of the benefits from the oil wealth, which they say comes from their traditional lands in the region.
The Ijaws are demanding greater compensation and political representation from President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is facing re-election next month. They also want the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) to redraw electoral boundaries before the April polls.
In the run-up to crucial general elections scheduled for 12-19 April, Ijaw youths have warned Obasanjo, and the Delta State governor, that they will make things difficult for the authorities in their part of the country. A spokesman said "If the federal government and state government do not address these issues, we will make this area ungovernable for them."
The same spokesman also had a warning for multinational oil companies: "We have informed Chevron and Shell, we have informed everybody - withdraw your workers from all installations." Militant Ijaw youths have made clear their threat to target and sabotage the oil companies facilities, including pipelines and flow stations in the area, if their demands are not met.
The Ijaw have been fighting with another local community, the Itsekiri, prompting the intervention of Nigerias security forces.
Blaming the Ijaw for the clashes, one Itsekiri woman told the BBC: "They came with some ammunition to attack our village, attack our men, our children, burn our village. They have burnt more than 10 villages now." She added: "The Ijaws are attacking us. The Urhobos are attacking us. We dont know what is happening."
"We need war. W-A-R," screamed one Itsekiri man. "If the world could come to our aid now, let them know what is happening to a tribe, a mini tribe in Nigeria called Itsekiri."
Another of the Itsekiri villagers fleeing the strife said the government should withdraw, so that the rival ethnic groups could "fight it out once and for all." This, said the BBC reporter in the area, was an apparent reference to the 1000-strong force from the army and the navy sent to restore order.
Angry Ijaw youths have complained that only Itsekiri villagers have been evacuated from the trouble spots, while the Ijaw have not been offered the same protection.
Army responds
The army said more than a dozen people had been killed in the fighting and claimed to have pacified Ijaw youths. Troops and armoured vehicles have been sent to the Delta region and roadblocks set up in the main oil-producing city of Warri.
Refugees fleeing Ijaw settlements claimed the army had imposed a state of siege, with navy gunboats and soldiers blockading and firing on their villages. The navy is reported to have put a 24-hour ban on any movement in the affected areas.
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Military spokesmen have previously denied targeting civilians, saying the security forces use minimum force when necessary. But Ijaw militants say their villages are threatened by the presence of the troops.
An Ijaw youth leader, who said he had fled from his home to Warri 40km away, told the BBC Tuesday that soldiers had burnt some of their villages in unprovoked attacks. "The army yesterday and today has been massacring our people. About four villages have been burnt down,"he said.
He appealed to the international community to intervene: "What has happened is that the army has released genocide on the Ijaw people," he concluded, denying that the Ijaw were armed and responsible for acts of sabotage on oil installations and petroleum facilities.
Communities in the rivers and creeks south of Warri have been caught up in the violent clashes. Trapped in the crossfire are local villages from both the Ijaw and the Itsekiri, in an escalating situation that the security forces seem unable to bring under control, despite their assurances.
Analysts say the ongoing unrest in the Niger Delta erupts periodically and is a major problem which the Nigerian government has failed to tackle convincingly. In addition to the communal violence are problems of environmental pollution, surrounding some of the worlds richest petroleum deposits and affecting thousands of impoverished fishermen and farmers in the area.
