Angry Nigerians expand fuel strike
 | A woman carries bucket of water past a closed filling station in Abuja, Nigeria. |
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LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- Nigerians angry at rising fuel prices expanded a nationwide strike Tuesday that has helped push world oil prices to record highs.
There was no immediate impact on the flow of oil from this volatile West African nation, the continent's largest oil producer and the fifth-biggest source of U.S. oil imports.
Streets in the normally bustling commercial capital of Lagos were deserted for a second day as police with assault rifles guarded major intersections.
"The strike is going on. It is entering its second day," said Owei Lekeimfa, spokesman for the Nigeria Labor Congress, the country's biggest labor federation.
The work stoppage is to last four days.
"Production is not affected," said a Udom Inoyo, a spokesman for Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, the second biggest producer in Nigeria. He declined to elaborate on staffing levels at the firm.
An official for Royal Dutch/Shell, which accounts for roughly half of Nigeria's oil exports, said its executive offices in Lagos were roughly "40 percent" staffed, and that the company has put in "measures to downplay the effect,"
Other major cities were shut down by the strike, although taxis and many private businesses were still open in the capital, Abuja.
Hundreds of protesters took to almost deserted streets in Lagos and the northern city of Kano on Monday, as most workers stayed at home in response to the strike call. In Kano, police said a 12-year-old boy was killed in clashes between police and protesters.
The strike spread in some cities on Tuesday. Nigeria's large market in the southeastern city of Onitsha -- a bazaar for everything from locally made car parts to groceries -- shut down.
"Yesterday our shops were open ... but today the market unions have asked us to shut our shops and there will be no business," Chi Osiuwe, a market trader, said by telephone from Onitsha.
Crude for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange reached a new high of $54.10, after settling overnight at $53.64. Traders said the Nigerian strike raised supply fears at a time of reduced output in the hurricane-ravaged Gulf of Mexico.
Union leaders are demanding the government reverse hikes last month that saw the price of fuel in Nigeria rise from about $1.19 a gallon to $1.50 a gallon.
The fuel market was deregulated last year, prompting a series of price hikes that were met with widespread protests.
A general strike shut down businesses in Lagos and several other cities for eight days, prompting a government crackdown during which police killed at least 11 protesters.
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