Lagos (Platts)--4Jul2008

Nigeria's vice president Goodluck Jonathan has asked for US assistance to
curb spiraling crude oil theft in the creeks of the Niger Delta, a statement
from his office said Friday.

Oil theft has become a source of funding through which militants procure
arms and ammunition to launch attacks on oil installations in the country.

Jonathan told a visiting delegation of six US Congressmen led by
chairman, house committee on foreign relations Howard Berman that while the
Niger Delta people had genuine grievances, some militants had seized the
opportunity to perpetuate crime.

"The majority of those involved in bunkering and arms trade in the region
are not from the Niger Delta, and they are the ones instigating the youths of
the region," the statement said. "It will therefore be welcomed if the US
government will assist Nigeria in curbing the criminalities within the area,
since the US government has its security installations in the Gulf of Guinea,
protecting its investment situated there."

Militants bombing Nigerian oil pipelines and production facilities said
they were protesting at decades of neglect in the Niger Delta region and have
an avowed aim of seizing control of the region?s oil resources.

But the campaign has been overshadowed by kidnappings of oil workers,
politicians and their families for ransom, and by oil theft where militants
have tapped into pipelines and production wells.

Industry officials said oil thefts account for about 200,000 b/d of the
total 1.5 million b/d production Nigeria currently loses, resulting in a
revenue shortfall of about $18 billion/year.

The US is Nigeria?s biggest oil importer. The US, which expects the Gulf
of Guinea's share of its oil imports to increase to more than 25% by 2015, has
established an African military command?-AFRICOM?-which will oversee the
deployment of US forces in the area and supervise distribution of money,
material and military training to regional militaries and proxies.

Jonathan stressed that the government looks forward to resolving the
crisis in the Niger Delta, through a soon to be convened peace summit. The
Steering Committee that would pilot the peace summit would be inaugurated
soon, he said.

The committee is expected to harmonize logistics and reach out to all
ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta region towards a date for the summit.

"[The] government is trying to ensure that most of the problems that led
to the crisis in the Niger-Delta is resolved," he said. "The Niger Delta
summit will achieve clear results."

The proposed peace conference has been clouded by threats of boycott by
community leaders and militia groups, over their opposition to the composition
of the leadership of the steering committee.

The main rebel group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger
Delta--which claimed responsibility for most of the attacks on oil
installations including last month's raid on Shell's Bonga oil field--, said
it would not participate in the summit unless the government freed its leader,
Henry Okah.