Nigeria pushes talks to halt oil attacks

LAGOS, Nigeria (CNN) -- Leaders in a volatile region of Nigeria have agreed to participate in government-backed talks intended to stop attacks on the country's oil industry, a government spokesman said Tuesday.

Recent attacks on oil installations in Nigeria have contributed to the rise in fuel prices in the United States and around the world. One in every 10 barrels of oil in the U.S. comes from Nigeria.

Nigerian Ministry of Information spokesman Henry Angulu said leaders in the Niger Delta have agreed to meet authorities at a summit, though a date hasn't been set.

"The purpose of the summit is to address the problems of the Niger Delta and to stop all armed conflict there," Angulu said.

However, the main armed group in the delta has said it does not plan to attend the conference unless the government releases one of its leaders. Angulu said he hopes the group will change its stance.

Called the Movement for the Emancipation for the Niger Delta, or MEND, the group has targeted foreign oil companies since 2006. It has bombed pipelines and kidnapped hundreds of foreign oil workers, typically releasing them unharmed, sometimes after receiving a ransom payment.

MEND hopes to secure a greater share of oil wealth for people in the Niger Delta, where more than 70 percent of the population lives on less than $1 a day.

Recent attacks have cut production in Nigeria, causing a ripple effect at gas pumps around the world.

"Anytime a pipeline is affected, anytime any production gets shut down, you see oil prices jump up $1 or $2 a barrel just because there is no slack in the system," said Jim LeCamp, a senior vice president with RBC Wealth Management, which manages assets for wealthy clients worldwide.

Exxon Mobil Corp. and Shell Oil Co. are two of several firms that had been extracting 2 million barrels of oil a day in Nigeria. Yet recent rebel attacks on oil pipelines in the Niger Delta have cut overall production by roughly 10 percent -- meaning 200,000 fewer barrels of oil on some days.

That decrease in production comes at a time of increased demand from oil-hungry regions such as China, Russia and Latin America.

"Anytime there's a disruption there, it really affects the system," LeCamp said.

MEND wrote President Bush recently, admitting that it attacked two oil pipelines and asking that former President Carter mediate its dispute with the central government over the distribution of oil wealth.

"The ripple effect of this attack will touch your economy and people one way or the other, and [we] hope we now have your attention," the group's letter said.

CNN's Christian Purefoy contributed to this report.

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