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Activities of the Niger Delta militant groups also known as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta people, has affected major oil facilities belonging to Agip, Shell and Chevron, and have also resulted in adverse consequences on oil production in Nigeria.
This problem has however had little impact on the price of crude oil in the international market. causingAlthough, the price of the commodity to rose to as high as $71.80/b before it finally came down to about $69.55 recently.
Crude oil for July delivery fell 2.6 percent to $69.55 a barrel, the biggest drop for the front-month contract in two weeks. It was the first close outside a channel that’s bounded intraday highs and lows during the last two months, according to analysts. 
Attacks by the armed groups in the Niger River Delta region, home to Nigeria’s oil industry, have cut the country’s exports by more than 20 percent since 2006, as most oil facilities have been blown up, resulting in oil companies shutting ins or drifting to other regions. 
Industry analysts stated that “the attacks would have necessitated a jump of $5 in a heartbeat on the Nigerian news if it had occurred when supplies were tight. The unrest in Iran would have also given a boost even though there has been no impact on oil shipments.” 
The attack on a major oil pipeline operated by Shell in the same Bayelsa State forced the company to shut in another 180,000 b/d of production; which pipeline delivers crude oil to the Brass export terminal. This prompted the global crude futures to be slightly firmer, with buoyant equity bourses and supply disruption in Nigeria, cited as supporting factors.
But in spite this; the World Bank holds the view that fuel consumption would be depressed. “The global recession will be deeper than forecast, bolstering concern that fuel consumption will remain depressed.”  
Oil dropped as much as 4.1 percent after the World Bank projected the global economy will contract 2.9 percent this year, more than it’s previously forecast decrease of 1.7 percent. Prices also declined as the dollar strengthened, reducing the appeal of commodities as an alternative investment. 
“We’re lower because reality is asserting itself,” said Chip Hodge, who oversees a $9 billion natural-resource-company bond portfolio as managing director at MFC Global Investment Management in Boston. The situation in Iran is also being cited as a geopolitical factor that could further make oil crude situation complex.
It is suspected that energy prices will retain their firm tone, especially given the unsettled situation in Iran, as it remains a very fluid and potentially dangerous situation with the ultimate outcome remaining unpredictable for both the country and the oil markets.
Unrest continued in Tehran over the results of elections in Iran, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ second-largest producer. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said security forces will crush further protests, as the country’s elections supervisory body acknowledged some balloting discrepancies. 
The recent developments in the country have had no impact on the oil industry or crude exports, according to Iran’s OPEC governor, Mohammad Ali Khatibi.
Crude oil for July delivery fell $2.81, or 4 percent, to $66.74 a barrel at 11:11 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures touched $66.70, the lowest since June 4, and are heading for the biggest drop since April 20. Prices are up 50 percent this year. The more-active August contract slipped $2.76, or 3.9 percent, to $67.26 a barrel. 
Total US daily fuel demand in the four weeks ended June 12, was down 6 percent from a year earlier, the Energy Department said last week. Gasoline inventories rose 3.39 million barrels to 205 million in the week ended June 12, the biggest increase since January, the department said. 
“The market has been overvalued for some time,” said Tom Bentz, a senior energy analyst at BNP Paribas Commodity Futures Inc. in New York. “The gasoline inventory build started getting the market moving lower. It’s gathered strength as we’ve broken through $70 and $69.” 
Analysts are however of the view that oil prices are ‘satisfactory,’ prices for producers and consumers even as global stockpiles remain high, Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries President, Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, said recently in Luanda, the Angolan capital. 
Brent crude oil for August settlement dropped $2.49, or 3.6 percent, to $66.70 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange.