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Oil firms must leave Nigeria, say rebels

VIENNA : Oil prices spiked upward on Friday after a report that militant commander declared ``total war'' on all foreign oil interests in the southern Niger Delta, giving traders a reason to return to the market after a week of steep losses. A rebel leader, Godswill Tamuno, told the BBC that his ``Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta'' had warned oil companies and their employees to leave the delta before midnight Friday. The militant group recently attacked two pipelines, which led the market to worry about supplies from the oil rich state. The rebels claim to be fighting for local control of oil by inhabitants of the impoverishe delta, who accuse joint ventures operated by the Nigerian state and Western oil companies of cheating them out of the wealth pumped from their backyards. Nigeria, with daily exports of 2.5 million barrels, is Africa's leading oil producer. It is also the fifth-biggest source of U.S. oil imports. — AP

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