According to Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, about 2.68 million barrels a day (mbpd) are expected to be produced by the African countries during
2010.

Nigeria, during December 2009, produced 1.984 million barrels per day, excluding the condensate, and was the highest amongst the African countries, where as Angola was the next.

Abuja, Jan 8 : Nigeria has given an ultimatum of one week to the US asking it to remove the country's name from the list of terrorism-sponsoring nations.

The US government has blacklisted few nations whose citizens are subject to rigorous screening before entering America in the wake of failed attempt of terror attack on Christmas.

Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was arrested for plotting a bomb blast in a flight from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport Dec 25 as it prepared to land in Detroit.

Abuja, Dec 31 : Muslim leaders in Nigeria have denied allegations that the international terrorist network Al Qaeda is active in the country, media reports said Wednesday.

Islamic clerics interviewed by Abuja newspaper the Daily Trust said the 23-year-old Nigerian who attempted to blow up an Airbus flight from Amsterdam to Detroit Dec 25 was an isolated case.

"There is no connection between the accused and any religious group in Nigeria," Islamic scholar Abdulfattah Adeyemi was quoted as saying.

Washington, Dec. 29 : The Nigerian-origin bomber, who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day, has warned US investigators that “there are more just like me who will strike soon.”

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, had earlier claimed connection with Yemen-based al Qaeda, which had supplied him with “new type explosives” to bring the trans-Atlantic flight down, and kill
289 people on board.

Washington, Dec 27 - A 23-year-old Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day claims he obtained explosive chemicals and a syringe that were sewn into his underwear from a bomb expert in Yemen associated with Al Qaeda.

Federal authorities have not independently corroborated the Yemen connection claimed by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was burned in his failed attempt to bring down the airliner, the New York Times reported Saturday.

Washington/Abuja, Dec 27 - Nigeria's Vice President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Saturday ordered a full investigation of the circumstances surrounding an alleged terrorist attack on a US airplane by a Nigerian citizen, according to the Nigerian newspaper, ThisDay.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, the son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, was charged Saturday in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with attempting to destroy a Northwest Airlines passenger plane carrying 278 passengers as it prepared to land in Detroit.

Nairobi/Abuja, Dec 5 : Nigerian fans are happy with their World Cup group, which pits them against Argentina, South Korea and Greece, but are worried their coach will be unable to take advantage of the relatively kind draw.

Nigeria struggled to qualify under local coach Shaibu Amodu, only getting there on the last day by virtue of Mozambique notching up an unlikely victory against group leaders Tunisia.

However, Argentina also qualified by the skin of their teeth under Diego Maradona and seem to hold no fears for the Nigerians.

Nairobi/Abuja - Nigeria's main rebel group said it welcomed peace talks with President Umaru Yar'Adua to end a long-running conflict in the oil-producing Niger Delta.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has conducted a extensive campaign of sabotage, cutting the West African nation's oil production by more than 20 per cent since early 2006 and helping drive up oil prices globally.

However, the group has called a ceasefire and over the weekend a negotiation team met Yar'Adua.

Nairobi/Abuja  - Nigeria's main militant group has indefinitely suspended attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta to allow peace talks with the government.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has conducted a long-running campaign of sabotage, cutting the West African nation's oil production by more than 20 per cent since early 2006 and helping drive up oil prices globally.

Nairobi/Niamey  - Voting began Tuesday in Niger's parliamentary elections, which are taking place despite a boycott by opposition parties and international calls for the poll to be postponed.

Opposition parties are furious with President Mamadou Tandja, who earlier this year dissolved parliament then called a referendum that succeeded in extending his mandate for three years and allowed him to run for president again.

Nairobi/Abuja  - Nigeria's main militant group said Friday that it would resume attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta, three months after calling a ceasefire.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has conducted a long-running campaign of sabotage, cutting the West African nation's oil production by more than 20 per cent since early 2006.

However, many of its commanders and rank-and-file men have taken advantage of a government amnesty to lay down their arms over the past few months.

Nairobi/Abuja  - Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua on Tuesday called for a summit of heads of state of the West African ECOWAS trade group to find a solution for the political crises in Guinea and Niger.

The summit is to discuss recommendations by an international contact group, which met Monday in the Nigerian capital Abuja, the This Day newspaper reported, citing a Foreign Ministry spokesman.

The contact group includes representatives of the European Union, the United Nations and the African Union.

Nairobi/Abuja - Some 70 people were killed, many of them burned to death, in a multiple-vehicle inferno in Nigeria caused after a fuel tanker lorry crashed, the online edition of This Day newspaper reported Saturday.

The accident in Anambra State ultimately involved nine vehicles, including the fuel tanker, six commuter buses, and passenger car and a van, the report said.

The newspaper cited eyewitnesses as saying the fuel tanker first toppled over near a junction, spilling fuel onto the road. The fuel exploded when a car approached the secne and then the other vehicles also were engulfed in flames.

The report described a horriific scne of people being burned alive in their vehicles.

Nairobi/Abuja - Some 70 people were killed, many of them burned to death, in a multiple-vehicle inferno in Nigeria caused after a fuel tanker lorry crashed, the online edition of This Day newspaper reported Saturday.

The accident in Anambra State ultimately involved nine vehicles, including the fuel tanker, six commuter buses, and passenger car and a van, the report said.

Nairobi/Abuja  - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday encouraged Nigeria to tackle corruption and improve governance on the fifth leg of her Africa tour.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation and until last month was its largest oil producer, but it faces a raft of problems - rampant corruption, bad governance and conflict in the oil-producing Niger Delta the most prominent.

Nairobi/Abuja  - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was due Wednesday to meet Nigerian President Umara Yar'adau in Abuja for talks centrig on corruption and electoral reform - on the fifth leg of her African tour.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation and also its largest oil producer, but it faces a raft of problems - rampant corruption, bad governance and conflict in the oil-producing Niger Delta the most prominent.

Nairobi/Niamey - Niger's President Mamadou Tandja has won a controversial referendum that could allow him to remain in power indefinitely by changing the constitution, provisional results showed Friday.

The president, who in June assumed the power to rule by decree, called the referendum in order to cling to power beyond the end of 2009, when his second and final term in power was set to expire.

Nairobi/Niamey  - Voters in Niger go to the polls on Tuesday in a controversial referendum that could allow President Mamadou Tandja to remain in power indefinitely.

Tandja, 71, has faced international criticism for dissolving the constitutional court and riding roughshod over parliament as he attempts to extend his term by another three years and remove barriers that would prevent him from running again.

There is international concern that the president's attempts to cling to power could cause instability in the impoverished nation of 15 million.

Nairobi/Abuja - The death toll in recent bloody clashes in the town of Maiduguri and other northern Nigerian rdistricts was stated by police and military sources Sunday to have been more than 600, well above earlier estimates of between
300 and 400.

A spokeswoman for the Red Cross in Maiduguri was quoted as saying there was a real danger of disease breaking out on a large scale as hundreds of bodies had been left out on the open streets for days.

Nairobi/Lagos  - The leader of an Islamic sect involved in bloody unrest in northern Nigeria has been killed while in police custody, news reports said.

Mohammed Yusuf was shot while trying to escape after his arrest in the town of Maiduguri, Nigerian authorities said late Thursday, the BBC reported.

"Mohammed Yusuf was killed by security forces in a shootout while trying to escape," a police spokesman told Nigerian television.

According to the This Day newspaper, Yusuf's deputy has also been detained.