Thomko Petro Chemical Blog

Nigeria's oil minister said he could not say when crude oil production lost to unrest in the Niger Delta region would return.

Edmund Daukoru said that over 700,000 barrels per day has been lost because of militant attacks.

The minister said that companies like Shell and Chevron shut down facilities because of the fear of being attacked and that patience was now required.

He said: "You have to be patient with the government, and the government has to be patient with the communities."

Patience is not necessarily what the oil markets want to hear, and the Europeans are reacting by the real and feared supply disruptions in Nigeria, Russia and the Middle East.