Nigeria's Petroleum Industry Reeling

[Snazzy]

CAPTION: Security forces detain youths in Warri, Nigeria, as tensions run high following clashes between tribal and political rivals in the run-up to the general election in this Sunday, April 13, 2003 file photo. The scramble for oil proceeds in Nigeria's south was the spark behind ethnic fighting that killed hundreds and crippled petroleum exports from Africa's leading producer of crude, an international human rights group said. Nigeria's oil industry- Africa's largest and the fifth-biggest source of U.S. oil imports- is concerned for its future after a yearlong spree of bloodletting that has killed more than 1,000 people in Nigeria's oil delta. (AP Photo/George Osodi)


Nigeria's Petroleum Industry Reeling

Aug 9, 6:53 AM (ET)

By GLENN McKENZIE

OMADINO, Nigeria (AP) - In unrest comparable in scale to Chechnya and Colombia, a year of bloodletting has killed more than 1,000 in the oil-rich Niger Delta - leaving the world's No. 7 oil exporter, and people here, concerned for the future.

...

Major oil companies hope to double production in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea, estimated to hold up to 10 percent of the world's oil reserves. The United States, Europe and Asia are increasingly looking to the region's oil as an alternative to crude from the Middle East.

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Delta residents complain their elected leaders have failed to fight poverty in the region. The residents, most of whom earn less than $1 a day despite the region's petroleum wealth, accuse oil companies of colluding with Nigeria's government to foment divisions between rival community groups in a strategy to deprive them of oil earnings.

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Earlier this month, security forces raided five delta villages, leaving 15 people dead and ransacking and burning homes, according to witnesses and militants. The operation was part of an effort to combat attacks on multinational oil operations, the security forces said.

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More details of US oil greed-raping, plundering, killing, etc. (i.e. biz as usual):

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040809/D84BLFI00.html

Edit: Yahoo! link:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=509&ncid=723&e=6&u=/ap/20040808/ap_on_bi_ge/nigeria_s_oil_crisis

[Dover]

1. Yeah. Since when did spilling other people's blood bother oil companies?

Delta residents....accuse oil companies of colluding with Nigeria's government to foment divisions between rival community groups in a strategy to deprive them of oil earnings.

Blood for Oil

[lil-petunia]

2. don't forget which US companies are heavily involved there

It was an US oil exec that asked for permission (given immediately) to start shooting if they felt their equipment was at risk.

[hadrons]

3. Nigeria's oil is sweet sweet crude ....