Oil supply outlook: Nigeria

The oil markets have long kept a wary eye on Nigeria, where civil unrest causes frequent disruptions to production, sometimes pushing up global crude prices, especially if the shut-ins coincide with other halts in crude oil supply elsewhere in the world.

At the end of last year there were indications that more peaceful times were ahead, allowing Nigeria to stabilise and even increase its oil production. A ceasefire was negotiated in October 2009 between president Umaru Yar’Adua and Nigeria’s mai