Nigeria is working to restore losses in oil production because of militant attacks on some pipelines, the country's finance minister said yesterday.
Over the last eight months, Nigeria's oil production has dropped 600,000 barrels a day to 1.9 million barrels from a projected 2.5 million barrels because of the attacks and violence in the oil-rich Niger Delta, Finance Minister Nenadi Usman said.
"Work on the broken pipelines is in progress. There is going to be some increase in production soon," Usman told reporters on the sidelines of a summit of the World Bank and IMF in Singapore.
Central bank Governor Charles Soludo said he expected the pipelines to be repaired "in weeks to months," but gave no timeframe.
Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, ranks fifth among crude suppliers to the US.
Kidnapping of oil workers and sabotage of pipelines are common in the Niger Delta. Despite the region's oil wealth, underdevelopment and government corruption mean most of the inhabitants remain mired in poverty. Dozens of expatriate workers have been held hostage by a variety of militant groups so far this year.
Usman also allayed concerns that her country's growing engagement with China on the oil front, could slow Nigeria's exports to the US.
"We used to supply 10 percent of the US requirement. We still do that," she said, when asked if a recent agreement with the China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) group to double Nigeria's crude oil exports to China would hurt supplies to the US. "Our agreement with China is a separate issue."
Under the deal, Sinopec, will receive 100,000 barrels per day.
China has taken a keen interest in Africa's oil and minerals as its economy heads into a fourth year of 10 percent growth. Earlier this year, Chinese President Hu Jintao (
Oil prices have retreated from record highs reached earlier this year. Yesterday, benchmark oil prices inched past the US$64 a barrel in Asia on the news that output at a huge BP PLC platform in the Gulf of Mexico would not be restored until mid-2008 at the earliest.
RISK REMAINS: An official said that with the US presidential elections so close, it is unclear if China would hold war games or keep its reaction to angry words The Ministry of National Defense said it was “on alert” as it detected a Chinese aircraft carrier group to Taiwan’s south yesterday amid concerns in Taiwan about the possibility of a new round of Chinese war games. The ministry said in a statement that a Chinese navy group led by the carrier Liaoning had entered waters near the Bashi Channel, which connects the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean and separates Taiwan from the Philippines. It said the carrier group was expected to enter the Western Pacific. The military is keeping a close watch on developments and “exercising an
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
RESILIENCE: Once the system is operational, there would be no need to worry about the risks posed by disasters or other emergencies on communication systems, an official said Taiwan would have 24-hour access to low Earth orbit satellites by the end of this month through service provided by Eutelsat OneWeb as part of the nation’s effort to enhance signal resilience, a Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) official said yesterday. Earlier this year the Ministry of Digital Affairs, which partnered with Chunghwa Telecom on a two-year project to boost signal resilience throughout the nation, said it reached a milestone when it made contact with OneWeb’s satellites half of the time. It expects to have the capability to maintain constant contact with the satellites and have nationwide coverage by the end
RSS