More Oil Trouble

Oil production and shipments in Nigeria have been partially cut back due to violence in the region. Here's one story from Reuters:

LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD.AS: Quote)(SHEL.L: Quote) said on Saturday it had withdrawn its staff from its EA oilfield in Nigeria, closing 115,000 bpd of crude output after a series of attacks by militants against oil facilities in the Niger Delta.

And here's another story from the Houston Chronicle:

WARRI, Nigeria — Militants launched a wave of attacks across Nigeria's troubled delta region Saturday, blowing up oil installations and seizing nine foreigners, including three Americans. The violence cut the West African nation's crude oil exports by 20 percent.

A fire was quickly put out on a Royal Dutch Shell platform that loads the company's tankers in the western delta, but the Forcados terminal's normal operations could not continue, halting the flow of 400,000 barrels a day.

In Bush's State of the Union address, which as many of us know are fine speeches not necessarily connected to reality or to what Bush actually plans to do, he said it was time for America to end its addiction to oil and cut our dependence on foreign sources. Of course, within 24 hours, when the Saudis asked what he meant, Bush reneged on his statement leaving us once more without a meaningful energy policy. But the reality is still the same: we need an energy policy that does not leave us vulnerable to high oil prices when these kinds of things happen. And Bush's friends in the oil companies should not be the beneficiary of Bush's incompetence.