Militant threat looms ahead of Nigerian elections

The risks to the oil sector are far from over

President Muhammadu Buhari faces a difficult year, as he seeks to implement far-reaching reforms to the oil and gas sector against a background of intensifying campaigning ahead of presidential elections. To make matters more complex, militants are threatening another campaign of attacks in the Niger Delta, risking oil production levels that have only recently recovered after the last bout of unrest. Nigerian crude output has been running at just below the 1.8m-barrel-a-day cap it informally agreed with Opec last November, while the country also produces a further 350,000 b/d or so of condensates (which aren't included in Opec quotas). While production is much higher than it was at the heigh