WARRI, Nigeria — Western oil companies operating in Nigeria are racing to lock up license renewals ahead of legislation that could boost tax and royalty rates.

Amid the negotiating scramble, several big players are expected to recommit to community-development programs and local infrastructure projects. Royal Dutch Shell PLC has even agreed to offer business training to former gun-toting militants in the volatile, oil-rich Niger Delta, following a government-sponsored amnesty here.

A sense of urgency arose among the Western oil majors after the Nigerian government said earlier this year it had received an expression of interest from oil-thirsty China to buy the rights to the expiring licenses. Nigerian officials confirmed in September that China’s state-owned Cnooc Ltd. was interested in more than 20 oil blocks, including nonexpiring blocks currently operated by Western companies.

China’s chances of actually acquiring the leases from the government were never very good. Apart from legal avenues Western companies could pursue to prevent their licenses from being taken and given to the Chinese, Western operators in Nigeria have been pumping oil for years and have longstanding, though sometimes volatile, relations with Abuja.

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By WILL CONNORS

LAGOS, Nigeria — Exxon Mobil Corp. ended months of negotiations with Nigeria by renewing three oil leases for fields the company operates in the country, an Exxon spokesman said.

The three leases — for sites that produce more than 550,000 barrels a day — were extended for another 20 years with an option to renew, at a signing ceremony Friday in the capital, Abuja.

Neither Exxon nor the Nigerian government provided details about the price paid for renewing the leases.

A person close to the deal said the government had asked for about $4 billion for the leases, but that Exxon paid less than $1 billion.

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Squabbling Rebels, Corruption Cast Doubt on Peace Plan

By WILL CONNORS

THE NIGER DELTA, Nigeria — Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua unveiled an offer in June for rebels to turn in their weapons in exchange for amnesty. Militant leader Ateke Tom watched the news conference on a flat-panel TV at his remote camp deep in this oil-rich expanse of wetlands.

“We want to observe the government’s moves before coming out,” Mr. Tom said a few days later in an interview at his outpost. Outside his concrete residence, young men in camouflage tank tops watched American movies and smoked marijuana in cigar-size joints, their AK-47s lying in the mud beside them.

Mr. Tom, a squat man sporting a G-Unit T-shirt and a gaudy medallion around his neck, said he was negotiating with federal officials, not the state government, which he doesn’t trust. “The governor wants me dead,” he said.

Mr. Tom and other militant leaders have wreaked havoc in recent years on Nigeria’s oil industry — and consequently its economy — from this vast network of densely forested creeks that fan out to the Gulf of Guinea. Now they must decide whether to stop their costly attacks on oil facilities and come out of the creeks once and for all.

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A1

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ABUJA, Nigeria — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned Nigeria’s electoral process and high levels of corruption, while pledging U.S. assistance in efforts to bring peace to the volatile and oil-rich Delta region.

During a town-hall meeting in the capital city on Wednesday marked by clapping and hooting, Mrs. Clinton urged Nigeria to fix its “flawed electoral system.” The meeting, which was by invitation, included democracy activists, several state governors and business leaders, including the country directors of U.S. oil companies Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp.

Mrs. Clinton said that Nigeria had the potential to be a member of the Group of 20 countries, “but — a big but — the corruption reputation … it is a problem.”

While chiding Nigerian elections, Mrs. Clinton said, to a big laugh from the audience, “I know a little bit about running in elections, and I have won some elections and I have lost some elections. And in a democracy there have to be winners and losers.”

“Our democracy is still evolving,” she added. “You know we’ve had all kinds of problems in some of our past elections, as you might remember. In 2000, our presidential election came down to one state where the brother of the man running for president was the governor of the state, so we have our problems, too.”

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WARRI, Nigeria — U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. shut down 100,000 barrels a day of Nigerian crude-oil production Monday after an attack on one of its pipelines, as fighting between Nigeria’s military and militant groups in the southern delta region entered a second week.

Nigeria’s main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, took credit for the attack, which occurred in the Abiteye area of Delta state. It claimed that it had also attacked four other pipelines leading to Chevron’s oil tank farm in the region.

Monday’s incident marks the first major retaliation from MEND since a sustained offensive by the Nigerian military’s Joint Task Force began 10 days ago.

“We will continue our cat and mouse tactics with [the Nigerian military] until oil export ceases completely,” MEND said in an emailed statement.

Chevron confirmed the attack on Abiteye and the halt in production but didn’t comment on the other pipelines alleged to have been targeted. The incident is being investigated by the relevant stakeholders, a Chevron spokesman said in a statement.

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