www.kansas.com Posted on Mon, Feb. 17, 2003 DULUE MBACHU Associated Press

LAGOS, Nigeria - Nigeria started sending replacement workers to its oil-export terminals Monday, trying to stave off a shutdown of crude exports in a strike by a powerful oil workers union.

The 2-day-old strike over pay and working conditions comes as the threat of war against Iraq and a prolonged strike in Venezuela have pushed oil prices near two-year highs.

Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest exporter of crude oil and half of its exports go to the United States. Oil exports account for more than 80 percent of government revenue.

The Department of Petroleum Resources said Monday that managers would fill in for striking workers and vowed that the oil would continue to flow.

"We have sent out management staff to the various terminals, depots and jetties to handle the jobs left by the strikers. There'll be no disruption of services as far as the management is concerned," said Belema Osibodu, an agency spokeswoman.

The strike was launched Saturday by union employees of the Department of Petroleum Resources, a key government unit overseeing operations of oil multinationals including ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, Royal Dutch/Shell and TotalFinaElf. It is backed by the country's leading Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria.

Strikers are demanding more than a year's worth of back pay, including unpaid overtime, expenses and travel allowances. They also want greater autonomy and better financing for the department, which they say is crippled by inefficient bureaucracy.

Officials of Shell and TotalFinaElf in Nigeria said the action hadn't yet affected exports. Shell pumps nearly half of the country's exports.

In London, benchmark Brent crude fell 52 cents Monday, hitting $31.98, after last week's two-year highs. U.S. markets were closed for Presidents' Day.

In Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, long lines of cars waiting for fuel formed at gas stations as the strike started to hit domestic fuel distribution. Fuel shortages also were reported in the capital, Abuja, and many other urban centers.

Nigeria produces over 2 million barrels of oil a day, more than 95 percent of which is pumped by joint ventures between the government and major oil companies.

pacific.bizjournals.com Howard Dicus   Pacific Business News

It isn't going to please those Hawaii residents who are now paying $2 a gallon for gasoline, or shippers bracing for next month's increase in the Matson fuel surcharge, but global oil production actually rose last month.

The Monday edition of the Middle East Economic Survey says OPEC oil production rose 2.2 percent from December to January, to 25.7 million barrels per day.

This means crude oil prices rose on world markets because of war fears despite the fact that supplies were actually improving. The benchmark crude in New York has risen to the neighborhood of $38 a barrel, the highest level in years.

Venezuela got more production back on-line as it recovered from a general strike, and output was boosted by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But more than half of the January increase in production came from Iraq, the Survey reported.

This means Iraq has materially profited from the prolonged crisis over its alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction.

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The American Automobile Association, which surveys retail gasoline prices daily in three Hawaii cities, on Monday reported an average $1.81 a gallon for self-serve regular unleaded gas in Honolulu, up 9 cents from a month ago.

In Wailuku the average price was almost $2.11 a gallon, up 13 cents in one month.

In Hilo the price was just under $1.90 a gallon, up 2 cents in the past month. Prices tend to be closer to $2 a gallon or more on the Kona side of the Big Island and on other islands.

Matson Navigation Co. said on Friday that next month it will raise its fuel surcharge from 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent, and CSX Lines said it is reviewing its own costs. Meanwhile, with jet fuel also rising, American Airlines says its cargo division is raising its own fuel charge.

www.bday.co.za

LAGOS - A threatened strike by Nigerian white-collar oil workers appeared to pose little threat to production or exports, amid conflicting claims over whether it had even begun.

The west African nation is the world's fifth largest oil exporter, and the strike warning had added to the fears of an industry already beset by political crises in Venezuela and the Middle East.

The PENGASSAN oil workers' union last week warned that strike action over pay by staff who supervise the loading of petroleum products at oil terminals could have a "biting effect" on exports.

On Monday, spokesmen for oil giants Shell and Mobil and the Nigerian national oil company (NNPC) tsaid that all operations were unaffected.

Emmanuel Agabir, spokesman for the oil ministry, said: "They're not going on strike as at the moment. I think they're going to hold some discussions."

But the secretary general of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Kenneth Narebor, said some workers at the oil companies' administrative headquarters had walked out on strike.

"From the reports I have now, it's started," Narebor said.

PENGASSAN called strike action for workers from Nigeria's Department of Petroleum Resources, who claim that they have still to be paid allowances for 2002 and had received December's salary a month late.

The workers oversee the various joint ventures between the NNPC and the oil multinationals which exploit Nigeria's rich fields, and was not clear whether they could significantly disrupt production.

Agabir said that he thought a strike would have little effect, in spite of the warnings from the union.

International oil prices are already at around their highest level in two years amid fears that a US-led attack on Iraq could disuript Middle East production and as strikes disrupt Venezuelan exports.   AFP

reuters.com Mon February 17, 2003 06:27 AM ET By Tom Ashby

LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC oil exporters will probably agree temporarily to suspend output quotas and pump at will if an attack on Iraq halts exports from the world's eighth largest exporter, an OPEC source said on Monday.

After two OPEC output hikes this year, only Saudi Arabia and perhaps United Arab Emirates have the capacity to make more supply available to world markets immediately.

"One or two countries could volunteer to make up for the loss of supplies should war start on Iraq, but they would need the blessing of other members," the source said, asking not to be named.

"It would be a temporary exemption, just as long as it takes to compensate for the loss and to cool off the market," he added.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which is due to hold a policy meeting on March 11, is already raising output to cover for an unexpected cut in strike-hit Venezuela, and would be pushed to full capacity if Iraq also stops. Rich nations which rely on OPEC oil for their huge import needs are watching OPEC policy closely, with a view to releasing oil from their massive emergency stockpiles if any severe shortage occurs.

After any war, the source said OPEC would return to the current production ceiling of 24.5 million barrels per day (bpd).

If war has not broken out before OPEC ministers meet, the source said the cartel would probably make no change in the 24.5 million bpd ceiling.

"Until war starts, there is nothing more they can do. More production can't cool prices. They are high because of war hysteria," the source said.

The cartel of mostly Middle Eastern states is committed to covering any supply disruption to the limit of its capacity.

Oil industry analysts estimate that Saudi Arabia and UAE combined have about two million barrels per day (bpd) of spare oil output capacity, roughly equivalent to Iraq's current exports.

www.brunei-online.com

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - Nigerian oil workers launched an indefinite strike on Saturday that could shut down crude exports in the world's sixth largest oil exporter.

The strike over pay and working conditions comes as the threat of war in Iraq and a prolonged strike in Venezuela have pushed oil prices to a two-year high. Half of Nigerian exports go to the United States.

The action was launched by employees of the Department of Petroleum Resources, a key government unit overseeing operations of oil multinationals like ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, Royal Dutch/Shell and TotalFinaElf. It is backed by the country's powerful Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, or PENGASSAN.

The strike aims to paralyse the loading of crude oil at export terminals, but PENGASSAN is threatening to shut down operations across the industry if the government does not meet its demands by the middle of next week.

"We started shutting down today," PENGASSAN spokesman Femi Familoni said, but added that the effect would likely not be felt until Monday.

A Shell spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said the company was taking steps to minimise the impact of the strike. He declined to elaborate. Officials at other companies could not immediately be reached for comment.

Strikers are demanding more than a year's worth of back pay, including unpaid overtime, expenses and travel allowances.

They are also demanding greater autonomy and better financing for the department, which they say is crippled by inefficient government bureaucracy.

"As things stand, most of the time we rely on ... oil companies to perform our duties, which is not how it should be," Familoni said.

President Olusegun Obasanjo's energy adviser, Rilwanu Lukman, offered to meet with the strikers Feb. 25, according to union officials. But strikers rejected the proposal, saying it did not reflect the urgency of their demands.

Government officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The government can ill-afford a prolonged strike as it seeks to tackle widespread poverty and repair infrastructure left to decay during decades of corrupt rule.

Nigeria produces close to 2 million barrels of oil a day, more than 95 percent of which is pumped by joint ventures between the government and major oil companies.