Militants from Nigeria's southern delta have threatened to cut oil exports by another 1m barrels a day this month. The hardliners, who have taken a Briton hostage along with two Americans, say they aim to squeeze exports to press home their campaign for more local control of the delta's oil wealth. Called the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, they have already staged a series of attacks on oil production. The violence has seen output from the world's eighth largest exporter drop by 20 per cent. "God willing we hope to reduce Nigeria's export by a further one million barrels for the month of March," the militants said in an email.
Royal Dutch Shell has already shut down its oil operations in the western side of the Delta, a loss of 455,000 barrels per day. The militants had threatened to cut exports by 30 percent in February. "There will be inland operations in March as well as standard creek attacks," they warned. Nigeria still pumps about 2 million barrels a day, mostly from the eastern side of the delta where Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Agip and Total operate oilfields.