By Benoit Faucon and Miriam Malek 

Nigerian officials said Tuesday that the government has clinched a deal for a 30-day truce with Niger Delta militants, after weeks of pipeline attacks dealt damaging blows to the country's oil output.

Nigeria's oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu held talks last week with militants, including an insurgent group called the Delta Avengers that has carried out a devastating series of operations targeting Nigerian oil operations, according to an aide to the minister.

Kennedy Tongo West, an aide to the governor of the oil-producing region, Bayelsa, said a truce had been reached but talks are ongoing for a final resolution.

The Avengers have previously denied talking with the government. The group didn't respond to requests for comment and hasn't released statements about it on social media.

The attacks had hit oil pipelines across Nigeria controlled by big oil companies such as Italy's Eni SpA , Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Chevron Corp., toppling the country's position as Africa's No. 1 oil producer.

According to the International Energy Agency, Nigeria's output was down by 500,000 barrels a day to 1.37 million barrels a day in May, compared with January before attacks escalated. A spokesman for state-owned Nigerian National Oil Corp. couldn't immediately comment.

The oil outages have helped a rebound in oil prices above $50 a barrel -- a level not seen since October 2015. Oil prices were down on Tuesday, with Brent crude, the international benchmark, falling 1.78% to $49.75 in London trading, but there were several factors, including investor worries about the U.K. potentially voting to leave the European Union on Thursday.

The last attack by the militant group took place on June 16. The Avengers and other groups have said they are protesting against the Nigerian government, which they say is stealing natural resources in the Niger Delta region.

The militants had previously said they wouldn't consider a peace deal without international mediators and had vowed, at one stage, to sink Nigerian production to "zero."

The attacks had come at the worst time for Nigeria, as it grapples with low oil prices that crashed to $27 a barrel in January, the lowest levels in 13 years. The country has been forced to massively tap into its foreign reserves. On Monday, Nigeria's currency plummeted more than 40% against the dollar after the central bank ended its dollar peg.

Write to Benoit Faucon at benoit.faucon@wsj.com and Miriam Malek at Miriam.Malek@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 21, 2016 11:18 ET (15:18 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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