Nigerian strike to target Shell
 | Shell is the largest petroleum producer in Nigeria. |
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| | FACT BOX | NET OIL EXPORTERS
(millions of barrels per day, 2003)
1. Saudi Arabia 8.38
2. Russia 5.81
3. Norway 3.02
4. Iran 2.48
5. UAE 2.29
6. Venezuela 2.23
Source: U.S. Department of Energy June 2004
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LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- Unions have declared oil multinational Royal Dutch/Shell, "an enemy of the Nigerian people" and called a November 16 nationwide strike that they say will target oil exports.
The threats in the world's No. 7 oil exporter -- the source of one-fifth of U.S. oil imports -- appear likely to send new shocks through the global oil price market.
Unions called the November 16 strike after giving President Olusegun Obasanjo until Sunday to reverse September's 23 percent increase in fuel prices in Nigeria.
Union leaders singled out Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Nigeria's largest petroleum producer. They accused it of planning to try to block the strike in court.
"We have resolved to declare Shell an enemy of the Nigerian people," Adams Oshiomhole, leader of the main Nigeria Labor Congress, told reporters Sunday.
"Shell will be treated as an enemy. We have the capacity to engage them," Oshiomhole said, without elaborating.
Neither government nor Shell officials could be reached for immediate comment.
An October general strike over the fuel price increases paralyzed business overall but left petroleum exports unaffected.
That strike helped push oil prices past the $50 a barrel mark globally.
"The last time we did not target oil exports because we expected the government to listen," Brown Ogbeifun, president of the union for Nigeria's white-collar oil workers, said.
"Now that the government will not listen, we have no option but to target exports," Ogbeifun said.
Nigeria exports 2.5 million barrels a day.
Separately, gangs and ethnic militias vying for local shares of the oil wealth repeatedly have targeted foreign oil producers with kidnappings, takeovers and sabotage.
In March 2003, fighting between rival ethnic militia groups near the port city of Warri -- which also drew in government troops -- forced oil companies to shut down 40 percent of Nigeria's oil exports for weeks. Much of that oil remains shut off.
Copyright 2004 The
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