W. Africa Crude-Asian Tenders, Pending Export Plans Slow Trade
Physical trading in West Africa was muted as the market awaited tender results and the April-loading Angolan crude oil export plan. * The benchmark oil prices on which West Africa crude oil trades retraced some of Monday's losses as confidence in OPEC's cut plan rose. * Nigerian oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said the country lost up to $100 billion in oil revenues last year due to militant attacks. The vice president travelled to the oil-producing Delta this week to further talks with militants. * Oil majors Royal Dutch Shell and ENI have asked a Nigerian court to lift a temporary forfeiture of a long-disputed oilfield, a copy of the court documents filed by the two firms showed. * Tenders from India, and scattered demand on the U.S.
Nigeria to Pursue peace in restive Oil-producing Delta Region
Nigeria's government will seek a lasting peace settlement with militants in the oil-producing southern Niger Delta region in 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari said in a New Year's message on Saturday. Attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria's energy hub, coupled with low oil prices, helped push Africa's biggest economy into recession - the first in 25 years - in the second quarter. Crude oil sales account for two-thirds of government revenue in the OPEC member country. Attacks by militants, who want a greater share of the country's energy wealth to go the impoverished oil-producing swampland, have been less frequent since November when Buhari held talks with community leaders from the region.
