After insurgents attacked a link to a key oil export terminal on the Forcados River in Nigeria's Delta region in February 2006, it took a year and a half for Royal Dutch Shell to make repairs and get part of it running again. It took just two months for insurgents to shut it down again.
The result: Just when oil-consuming countries want more high-quality petroleum to cool off high oil prices, a group of insurgents in the West African nation forced oil companies to stop pumping an average of 475,000 barrels a day last year, and at times as much as 600,000 barrels a day.[...]
"It's one of the puzzling aspects," said Stephen Morrison, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "If the Gulf of Mexico were in the condition of the Niger Delta, or some portion of the gulf were in semi-permanent Katrina-like condition with lots of guys with weapons running around stealing things, it would be a political issue." Read the article
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