Angry Asari  

I mentioned the Asari militia in Nigeria a while ago - it seems their leader has been arrested and that interruptions to the flow of oil from Nigeria are now being threatened.

I imagine if this happens and there is major damage to oil infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico from Hurricane Rita then we'll be in for another big spike in the oil price.

A militia with a history of violence in Nigeria's oil-rich south threatened to blow up oil installations if the government did not release its leader, after he was reportedly arrested Tuesday.

Dozens of soldiers and police arrested Moujahid Dokubo-Asari, the main militia leader in Nigeria's south, at his office in the oil city of Port Harcourt, said his lawyer Uche Okwukwu. Nigeria's police spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

Dokubo-Asari's deputy in the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force, Alali Horsefall, said that if the government "doesn't release my president within 24 hours, they will see danger." He said he would "blow up oil installations" if Dokubo-Asari was not released by 2 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) and warned foreign oil workers to leave the area.

Nigeria is the world's eighth largest oil exporter, and the fifth main supplier to the United States. Last year, threats by Dokubo-Asari to unleash a "full-scale war" and target international oil firms helped send world oil prices to then-record levels.