Port Harcourt, Nigeria | – Nigeria’s military said on Thursday that it had destroyed 13 illegal refineries in the restive Niger Delta oil hub, in an operation in which two soldiers died in clashes with “sea robbers”. Military authorities say there are hundreds of illegal refineries in the region, which process stolen crude from oil company pipelines. The Nigerian government said last week that it plans to legalise illicit refineries as part of an attempt to bring peace to the production heartland of crude oil, …

Pipeline bombings have stopped since militants agreed a truce Vice president’s visit to oil region improved chances of peace Abuja, Nigeria | – When militants in Nigeria’s southern Niger River delta started attacking oil installations, President Muhammadu Buhari promised to crush them by force. A year and $7 billion in lost oil exports later, his decision to switch tack by negotiating with the fighters seems to be working. All but one force majeure, a clause that gives oil producers the right to miss supply obligations, …

Lagos, Nigeria |  – The Nigerian government’s amnesty program designed to keep militants from attacking oil facilities in the Niger Delta is facing funding problems, posing a potential challenge to efforts to curb violence in the region and raise oil production, a government official said Sunday. Nigeria had been paying hundreds of millions of dollars annually to former Niger Delta militants under an amnesty program introduced in October 2009 to help end years of attacks on oil installations. “The program has faced inadequate funding,” presidential …

Abuja, Nigeria | –  Nigeria’s blue-collar oil union suspended a planned three-day warning strike that began Wednesday after the government brokered a deal between workers and oil companies, including units of Chevron Corporation and Exxon Mobil Corporation. Union leaders called off the strike late Wednesday after an “exhaustive meeting” with oil company representatives and the minister of labour, Adamson Momoh, a spokesman for the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, (NUPENG), said by phone on Thursday. The companies “agreed to revive the collective …