What's out in Nigeria

[bananas]

http://www.platts.com/weblog/oilblog/2007/08/whats_out_in_nigeria.html

What's out in Nigeria

There is no doubt that Nigeria's continued loss of production has been a significant boost to oil prices. There also is little end in sight to the shut-ins that have taken so much oil off the market.

Platts' Africa correspondent, Jacinta Moran, with many years' experience covering that part of the world, has compiled the most accurate and complete list of the precise size of the outages. If you read various media accounts of just how much oil has been lost there, the estimates vary widely. But here is what we at Platts are using, based on Jacinta's research.

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--Those are total outages then of approximately 1.5 million b/d, out of total estimated capacity of 3.2 million b/d. Imagine how different oil markets might look if all of that capacity could be accessed. OPEC, which now has limited challenges in maintaining prices, given the tight spread between supply and demand, would have major issues to confront.

--There is little end in sight to the tension. Just today, an employee of Total was kidnapped. President Yar'Adua's decision to take direct control of the country's energy industry and appoint a former commercial lawyer with no experience in the oil and gas industry is unlikely to help stem the tide of violence in the oilpatch.

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