ABUJA: Nigeria's government and military chiefs on Tuesday met governors of oil-producing states after announcing it planned peace talks with militants who have repeatedly attacked pipelines and installations, slashing output.
President Muhammadu Buhari last week ordered enhanced security in the restive oil-producing south, sending gunboats and fighter jets into the creeks and swamps of the Niger delta to hunt down the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) rebels.
But junior oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said late on Monday that a suspension of military operations was likely "for a week or two for individuals in the creeks to converge for the dialogue".
Buhari was keen to explore talks and had ordered a halt to manoeuvres and patrols "to ensure a team that will be led by the national security adviser dialogue with the militants to ensure peace", he added.
The NDA has attacked infrastructure and facilities operated by the Nigerian subsidiaries of Shell, Eni and Chevron, and the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, which Kachikwu also heads.
Attacks have cut output to 1.6 million barrels per day, well below the budgeted-for 2.2 million bpd, heaping further pressure on an economy badly hit by the global fall in the price of crude since mid-2014.
Kachikwu said the government was determined to restore "genuine peace in the region where oil production has been significantly hurt by the activities of the Niger Delta Avengers".
He urged the militants agitating against repeated oil spills and poverty in the swamps and surrounding area to accept the government truce offer.
"The avenue is open for them, provided the militants are willing to embrace dialogue and allow truce to reign," he said.
- Scale back -
The Avengers are believed to have sympathy with a former oil rebel leader active in the region in the 2000s who is now wanted on money laundering and corruption charges.
They want an amnesty programme maintained that in 2009 brought an end to years of violence, and have also pressed for self-determination for the Niger delta region.
But they maintain their activities are only targeting oil installations rather than personnel or the military.
There was no immediate response to the government's offer from the NDA, which typically communicates through Twitter, its website and emailed media statements.
Last week a prominent group representing the ethnic Ijaw people who dominate in Bayelsa state said Buhari needed to act as the situation was "rapidly deteriorating and getting out of control".
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, standing in for Buhari who is in Britain undergoing medical checks, on Tuesday met state governors from oil-producing states with Kachikwu and military top brass in Abuja.
Delta State governor Ifeanyi Okowa said after the talks they had been briefed on the situation and "we believe that we are going to find (a) solution very soon".
All sides agreed there needed to be better intelligence-sharing and the military had to be scaled back, without withdrawing completely, as well as more engagement with local communities, he added.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), an umbrella group of militants who hit the oil sector in the 2000s, said in a statement late Monday that the military's use of force was "disproportionate".
It also accused the new rebel groups of being "MEND commanders and fighters who jumped on the Presidential Amnesty gravy train without knowing why they took up arms in the first place".
The US Embassy in Abuja, meanwhile, said it was monitoring the situation and backed talks to address grievances and a peaceful solution to the crisis.
"We share the concerns of all Nigerians about these attacks," the embassy said in a statement.
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