Nigeria oil union threatens shutdown amid strike

A union representing 20,000 oil and gas workers in Nigeria threatened Thursday it would shut down all production starting Sunday to take part in the crippling nationwide strike over spiraling fuel prices.              

The strike began Monday after the Nigerian government reversed a two-decade-long popular subsidy program that had kept gas prices low for Nigerian consumers. Anger over the government's decision has led to demonstrations across Africa's most populous nation, and related violence has left at least 10 people dead.              

A statement Thursday by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria said that if the government does not restore the subsidies, the union will be "forced to go ahead and apply the bitter option of ordering the systematic shutting down of oil and gas production."            

Benchmark oil prices rose by $1.03 to $101.90 per barrel Thursday in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices rose on concerns of global supplies.             

Nigeria is the fifth-largest oil exporter to the United States, and losing those supplies would force American refineries to replace 630,000 barrels of crude per day.          

AP