Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/guerilla-groups-attack-nigerian-oil-resources-affecting-world-market Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Oil pipelines in Nigeria, the fifth-largest provider of oil to the United States, have been the targets of guerilla groups recently, contributing to last year's gas price surges. Margaret Warner talks with author Sebastian Junger about the latest activity in the region. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. MARGARET WARNER: The ever volatile price of oil was especially so last year, skyrocketing at one point to almost $80 a barrel. One key reason was a little noticed spate of guerrilla attacks in Nigeria, the fifth biggest supplier of oil to the United States.Several major foreign oil companies, the biggest being Shell, operate in the southern Niger Delta region, extracting oil to sell on the global market. In the past year, their operations have taken a beating from armed militants, who have staged violent attacks on company facilities, killing workers, security guards, and soldiers — another favorite M.O., kidnapping for ransom. More than 100 foreign oil workers have been taken hostage in just the past year. In one attack last August, gunmen stormed this bar in Port Harcourt and abducted four Western oil workers.Nigeria's oil output is down 25 percent as a result, and the attacks continue. Members of a group calling itself the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, claim to be behind many of the attacks.Journalist and author Sebastian Junger, who wrote the bestseller "The Perfect Storm," went to Nigeria recently and gained access to the camps of this shadowy group. His article about it appeared in the February issue of Vanity Fair magazine, where he is a contributing editor.And Sebastian Junger joins me now.And welcome. SEBASTIAN JUNGER, Vanity Fair: Thank you.