Lagos (Platts)--11Nov2008

Nigeria's main oil rebel group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the
Niger Delta, Tuesday threatened to wage another "oil war", tagged Hurricane
Obama, if Nigerian military carry out a planned raid on the group's camps in
search of its leader.

MEND said it had information that the JTF, a special security outfit set
up by the government to check the unrest in the Nigeria's southern oil region,
was planning to launch an attack on two major MEND camps in Delta and Bayelsa
states.

"Based on faulty intelligence gathering as usual, the military Joint Task
Force has accused Boyloaf, a senior Movement for the Emancipation of the
Niger Delta commander in Bayelsa state, of being behind the abduction of two
crewmen from the Borifish Hercules Vessel belonging to Offshore Nigeria Ltd,"
MEND said in an statement emailed to Platts.

"This will be a big mistake as it will lead to another oil war (Hurricane
Obama) where we are sure of a 'landslide' victory. Hurricane Obama will target
the oil industry in a way never done before which will in turn make the
Nigerian governments 2009 budget projections based on oil revenue an economic
disaster," the group said.

Last September, MEND carried out series of bombing of pipelines and oil
production facilities for six straight days, resulting in loss of production
by Shell and the oil giant extending the force majeure on
Bonny loadings.

Oil exports account for more than 90% of Nigeria's foreign exchange
revenue. The government has already been forced to revise downward the 2009
budget benchmarks following the drop in international oil prices and falling
production back at home, due mainly to the unrest in the main oil-producing
Niger Delta region.