Militants’ action raises crude oil price to $69.35 per barrel

Gbola Subair and Bolaji Ogundele with Agency report - 26.06.2009

DISRUPTION of oil installations in the Niger Delta region has propelled the price of crude oil in the international market to rise by $1 (one US dollar).

According to agency report, on Thursday, in London, Brent oil future LCOc1 increased by more than one dollar to $69.35 after Nigeria’s main militant group.

Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), shut down one of Royal Dutch Shell HYPERLINK stocks quote symbol pipeline junction points, heightening supply from the region.

Brent crude future rose to $69.35, before easing slightly to trade at $69.27, up 94 cents by 1221 GMT. It will be recalled that Nigeria’s main militant group said, last Sunday, that its fighters had attacked two Royal Dutch Shell oil pipelines in Rivers State and a shallow-water offshore field, widening a month-old offensive.

‘The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it had attacked Shell pipelines at Adamakiri and Kula, both in Rivers in the eastern Niger Delta, early on Sunday, as part of a campaign it has dubbed "Hurricane Piper Alpha.”

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s oil output has further been shortened as militants attacked another oil facility belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) located around Krakrama community in Rivers State.

Spokesman of MEND, Jomo Gbomo, who declared this in a statement circulated in Port Harcourt, on Thursday, also threatened that his group would ensure that the nation’s new pact with Russia failed.