SINGAPORE — Oil prices rebounded Friday from the previous session's steep drop, fueled by supply concerns after a Nigerian militant group reported that it sabotaged another oil pipeline. Oil prices had initially extended Thursday's decline of more than $2 a barrel, with a stronger U.S. dollar prompting investors to book profits. But after oil dipped below $115 a barrel, news of the new threat to supplies put it back on the upward track.
Light, sweet crude for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 74 cents to $116.80 a barrel in electronic trading by late afternoon in Singapore. It fell as low as $114.51 a barrel earlier.
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With the dollar still strengthening, though, it remains to be seen if oil will resume its march toward $120 a barrel. Investors see commodities such as oil as a less effective hedge against inflation when the dollar strengthens. A stronger dollar also makes oil more expensive to investors overseas.
"The current thinking is that the U.S. dollar may be bottoming out, and so market participants therefore unwound some of their positions in oil and took some profits," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore, before news of the pipeline attack in Nigeria.
The June Nymex crude contract dropped $2.24 to settle at $116.06 a barrel on Thursday.
Analysts said the dollar gained ground Thursday on speculation the Federal Reserve is growing concerned about inflation and may not cut interest rates as much as once thought. Higher interest rates tend to stabilize or strengthen the dollar.
Few analysts, though, are willing to predict that oil's record run is over. Investors remain concerned about tight supplies of oil amid growing global demand, they say.
"Supply concerns will still underpin oil pricing," Shum said.
In Nigeria, The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said Friday its fighters hit a pipeline late Thursday in southern Rivers State. That brought to four the number of pipelines the group has attacked in the past week.
MEND said in a statement that the pipeline attacked Thursday belongs to a Royal Dutch Shell PLC joint venture. A Shell spokesman had no immediate comment.
MEND is the main militant group behind a series of recent attacks in Nigeria's southern oil region.
Shell said earlier this week that it had shut in about 170,000 barrels a day of Nigerian production due to one of the earlier attacks. Adding to supply concerns, BP PLC is also considering shutting down its 700,000 barrel-a-day Forties pipeline system if a strike continues at a U.K. refinery.
In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 0.25 cent to $3.2608 a gallon while gasoline prices dropped 2.91 cents to $2.9895 a gallon. Natural gas futures lost 3 cents to $10.76 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Brent crude futures rose 95 cents to $115.29 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
Associated Press writer Edward Harris in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.
source: 25apr2008
Dear Mr. President,
On Monday, April 21, 2008 at 0100 and 0310 Hrs commandos from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) in continuation of Operation Cyclone ( the crippling of the Nigerian oil export industry) attacked two major oil pipelines in Rivers state of Nigeria located at Isaka River and Abonnema River (close to Idama flow station). The pipelines may belong to Shell and Chevron .
Today's attack was prompted by the continuous injustice in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria where the root issues have not been addressed by the illegal and insincere government of Umaru Yar'Adua and Goodluck Jonathan. It also dispels the false impression that peace and security have been restored in order to gain the confidence of potential investors in the oil and gas sector; to protest the continuous detention and secret trial of Henry Okah who was taken hostage during a supposed truce and who must be a key participant in any on-going peace process to make it acceptable to us. Then finally, to show our way of saying "welcome" to the US Naval warship, USS Swift which is transiting the Gulf of Guinea.
In our first open letter to you dated February 17, 2008 which remains valid and another dated January 19, 2008 to Actor George Clooney, a UN Messenger for Peace, MEND expressed its willingness to embrace a genuine and transparent peace program without getting any response. The ripple effect of this attack will touch your economy and people one way or the other and hope we now have your attention.
Mr president, your warships do not intimidate us. Instead they only embolden our resolve in fighting the Goliaths of the world that support injustice. Do you consider the over 4,000 precious lives of your compatriots wasted in that senseless war in Iraq? You have meddled negatively in other countries using false excuses and information in deceiving a gullible American public.
It was your country that once backed a blood thirsty despot called Mobuto and conspired in killing the visionary Lumumba. Now you are repeating the same evil in the Niger Delta and the gulf of Guinea. You dined with Olusegun Obasanjo, who not only committed genocide against the people of Odi, in Bayelsa state but is being discovered as the biggest thief in the history of Nigeria. In your God fearing heart, you know the truth concerning the fraudulent electoral process that has ascended Yar'Adua and his deputy to the presidency, yet your country looked the other way.
We have nothing to loose because he that is down need fear no fall. Our waters and farms have been polluted by oil companies with double standards. Our girls are raped by soldiers of the Nigerian army with impunity and protesting youths are assaulted and killed daily. Even journalists from your country can not visit the region to report the truth without being arrested and embarrassed.
MEND is prepared for talks and will prefer Ex President Jimmy Carter to mediate. Mr carter is not in denial as the rest of you who brand freedom fighters as terrorists, forgetting their integral role in any sustainable peace process just as he has demonstrated in his meeting with Hamas.
If the root issues such as the control of our resources continues to be swept under the carpet, and the governments deception of the Niger Delta people continues; including holding sons of the Niger Delta hostage in Northern Nigeria, then, like Otto von Bismarck once remarked, "the great questions of the time will be decided, not by speeches and resolutions, but by iron and blood".
Yours Sincerely,
Jomo Gbomo
source: 25apr2008
Fresh off his controversial meetings with Hamas, former President Jimmy Carter appears to be in hot demand among rebel groups around the world.
The Nigerian rebel group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) solicited his help in mediating between it and the Nigerian government in a letter addressed to President Bush sent out earlier this week by the group's spokesman, Jomo Gbomo.
"Mr. Carter is not in denial as the rest of you who brand freedom fighters as terrorists, forgetting their integral role in any substantial peace process just as he has demonstrated in his meeting with Hamas," said Gbomo.
MEND, which claims it is fighting for a more just distribution of the country's billions of dollars of oil revenue, has attacked two pipelines in the past week. The group is responsible for kidnapping more than 100 foreign oil workers last year, and has repeatedly attacked oil facilities in the Niger Delta region since late 2005.
Gbomo also claimed responsibility for an attack on a pipeline Monday in the letter. The attack was prompted by "continuous injustice" in the Niger Delta, according to the letter, which said the "root issues" in the Delta have not been addressed by the "illegal and insincere government."
"The ripple effect of this attack will touch your economy and people one way or the other and hope we now have your attention," the letter said.
The Nigerian Embassy did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.
The State Dept, which insists it counseled against Carter's meetings with Hamas, was unaware of MEND's request for Carter as a go-between. Spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday, "I'm not sure that the former president has expressed an interest in dealing with that matter."
source: 25apr2008
Lagos — A main militant group behind a string of recent attacks in Nigeria's southern oil region said on Friday it has sabotaged another pipeline.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said its fighters hit a pipeline late on Thursday in southern Rivers State - bringing to four the number of pipelines the group has reportedly blown up in the past week.
The group said in a statement that the pipeline belongs to a Royal Dutch Shell PLC joint venture. A Shell spokesperson had no immediate comment.
The group says its fighting to force the federal government to give more oil industry revenue it controls to its region, which remains deeply poor despite four decades of oil production in the area.
The militants have stepped up activities as one of the group's reputed leaders, Henry Okah, faces trial on terrorism and treason charges. The group emerged two years ago and quickly established itself as the region's most-effective militant organisation.
But crime and militancy are intermingled in the region, with gunmen stealing crude oil for resale or robbing banks one day and battling security forces or blowing up oil infrastructure the next.
The southern Niger Delta, where the crude is pumped in Africa's biggest oil industry, is traversed with pipes that carry oil from well heads via transfer stations and on to export terminals.
The infrastructure in the vast region of creeks and swamps is virtually unguarded.
Since Okah's arrest, the group has not launched any of the coordinated, military-style armed raids on staffed facilities that originally made it notable.
Shell confirmed three attacks over the past week, and announced it may not be able to meet its obligations to ship some 169 000 barrels per day from Nigeria over the next few weeks.
The company, one of the main operators in the country, has yet to report any production outages from the other attacks.
Those attacks helped send crude prices to historical highs on international markets. - Sapa-AP
source: 25apr2008
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