Oil hung onto earlier gains in afternoon trade as news the EU has formally agreed to introduce sanctions against Iran added to supply fears linked to ongoing tension in Nigeria following Saturday’s presidential elections.
Uncertainty ahead of the release of EIA inventory figures later this week is also helping to buoy prices, analysts said.
At 1.12 pm, London Brent crude for June delivery was up 65 cents at 67.14 usd a barrel. Meanwhile, New York crude for June delivery was up 20 cents at 64.32 usd a barrel.
Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which have pushed prices higher in recent months, returned to the spotlight as the EU said it has formally agreed to introduce sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme in line with a UN Security Council resolution.
Archive for the 'Oil' Category
Al Jazeera is running Andrew Simmons report from the Delta, with an interview with Ateke Tom (who’s gang claimed responsibility for attacks on police stations in Port Harcourt last weekend, leaving 7 officers dead.):
Ateke Tom, known as the godfather of the vigilantes in the dangerous Niger Delta, has threatened war against Nigeria’s government and admitted to carrying out deadly attacks on two police stations.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Tom said his group, the Niger Delta Vigilante (NDV), is responsible for vote-rigging and death squads.
Thanks to OpenDemocracy.net for the name check in their daily security brief.
Looking at the list of security flashpoints in the article, the common factor is vulnerable energy infrastructure. With instability in the Persian Gulf continuing, markets will be watching the Nigerian elections closely.
The Wall Street Journal’s Chip Cummins reports today:
The balloting that kicks off in Nigeria Saturday could prove to be a historic event: If the election of a new government goes smoothly, the transition will mark the first time one civilian government in Africa’s most-populous nation passes power to another.
But sporadic violence already has marred the campaign season. Unresolved legal controversies surrounding two candidates could spawn prolonged court battles and possibly postpone voting day.
Amid the chaos, some observers are predicting a messy outcome that could result in challenges to the vote or widespread disenchantment with its outcome. That could have broad repercussions well beyond Nigeria […]
[You need a WSJ subscription to read the whole article.]
The world has hardly paid attention to the Niger Delta and Nigeria’s travails since 2003, or to the region generally. Unlike Los Angeles – or London, or Paris, or Hong Kong - there are very few stories and images that come to mind at the mention of the Gulf of Guinea.
If there is now any predominant narrative of the Niger Delta’s troubles it is “angry black man with a gun is in the way of your oil.”
Continue reading ‘More thoughts on the fragile state of Nigeria’
The architect Frank Lloyd Wright once observed that if you put America on its side, Los Angeles would be the place where everything loose would fall out.
(Los Angeles is a place I’ve never been to, and I expect neither have you. But the idea of Los Angles seems so vivid through American movie and television culture that we all can feel we get the joke.)
Reflecting on my experiences as an observer of Nigeria’s 2003 elections, I am left wondering if the Niger Delta - somewhere I have been - might be the place where all the loose parts of 21st Africa would fall out if you shook it hard enough.
NPR’s ‘On Point’ today features a discussion between Sebastian Junger, author of the recent Vanity Fair article ‘Blood Oil’ and Nnamdi Obasi, Senior Analyst with the West Africa Project, International Crisis Group.
There are audio feeds of the show.
Informative and I’m glad this issue is still getting some coverage in the USA, but it’s a shame the feature has to focus on the violence and despair. Africa gets so little coverage in the American media. All Americans get to hear about Africa is poverty and war…
The Niger Delta is in trouble but it’s not terminal, yet. Not so long as people can still see hope and a brighter future.
