ABUJA, July 26: Washington’s pointman on Africa on Thursday insisted that his government is not pressuring Nigeria to quit the Opec oil cartel, despite allegations to the contrary from a senior Nigerian minister.

Speaking to reporters after meeting with President Olusegun Obasanjo, US Assistant Secretary of State Walter Kansteiner said there was no truth in reports that America wants Africa’s biggest oil exporter out of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

“There is no pressure whatsoever. The subject did not even come up,” he said, on the last full day of a tour of Angola, Gabon and Nigeria, three west African states with large and underdeveloped oil fields.

His assertion flew in the face of a statement made earlier by Nigeria’s information minister Jerry Gana.

“The United States is putting pressure on Nigeria to pull out of Opec, but Nigeria will not. Nigeria’s interest is best served in Opec,” Gana said, in remarks passed to AFP by his spokesman Dan Onimna.

A British press report at the weekend triggered speculation that Nigeria, Opec’s fifth largest exporter of oil, was planning to pull out of the price-fixing club in order to develop closer ties with the United States, the major customer for its crude exports.

Nigerian officials swiftly denied the reports, and have promised to make a full statement on their oil policy to the media on August 1.

Influential lobbyists and lawmakers in Washington have been pushing the White House to make securing oil supplies from west Africa a strategic priority in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, which strained relations with America’s traditional suppliers in the Middle East.—AFP