Thursday, July 23, 2009 ABUJA: Nigeria's oil production has been cut to about 1.5 million barrels of crude per day -- less than half of its capacity -- by rebel attacks in the main producing region and the international economic crisis, Petroleum Minister Rilwanu Lukman said Wednesday."Our daily production is around 1.5 million barrels of crude and about 500,000 barrels of condensate and natural gas liquid, around two million barrels if you add the condensate with the oil," Lukman said. The minister said "more than half of our capacity" is lost because of militant activities in the Niger delta and the international crisis. "When the market calls for more, we are ready to supply and when the situation in the Niger delta improves, we will be in a position to supply more," Lukman said.Nigeria, an OPEC member, is the world's eighth largest oil producer.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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