Nigeria Reportedly Reaches 30-Day Truce With Militants
June 21 2016 - 11:33AM
Dow Jones News
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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