Militant attacks on oil facilities in the Niger delta continued during the week, which put further pressure on the oil prices. Royal Dutch Shell shut down more of its production following fresh attacks on oil wells and other valuable equipments. These attacks have led to the shutting down of a capacity of about 164,000 barrels-per-day by Shell1.

Later during the week, a construction vehicle stuck an oil pipeline on the outskirts of Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city, setting off an oil-fed inferno that spread to surrounding homes and a school killing 100 people2.

Notwithstanding these developments however, oil prices eased with light crude selling at $124.23 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on May 133.

President Bush’s attempt to address the rising prices during his May 17-18 visit to Saudi Arabia to discuss the oil prices also turned futile4. The OPEC has however refused to increase oil production5. Reports also questioned the ability of OPEC to affect global oil prices as their effective market share was only about 31.87 per cent of the global oil market6.

• 1. “Shell Shuts Down Production After Militants Attack,” Leadership Nigeria, May 17, 2008, at http://www.leadershipnigeria.com/product_info.php?products_id=
• 2. “100 Feared Dead in Nigerian Pipeline Fire,” International Herald Tribune, May 16, 2008, at www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/16/africa/16nigeria.php
• 3. “Oil Prices Slide, and Wall Street Cheers,” The New York Times, May 13, 2008, at www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/business/13stox.html
• 4. Jennifer Loven, “Saudis see no reason to raise oil production now,” Yahoo News, May 16, 2008, at news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080516/ap_on_re_mi_ea/bush_mideast
• 5. Jennifer Loven, “Bush, Saudis to discuss soaring gas prices,” Associate Press, May 17, 2008, at http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hkf--m78S6F3LZAcz4sVHGGCQSTgD90MIM8O0
• 6. Sayed Rahid Husein, “Who Really Controls the Oil Market?,” ArabNews.com, May 16, 2008, at revolutionradio.org/2008/05/16/who-really-controls-the-oil-market/