The strike threatened oil exports from Nigeria, Africa's largest producer and the source of a fifth of the United States' oil imports. Labour leaders claimed that workers from Nigeria's two major oil unions joined the strike. But oil companies said there had been no immediate impact on production or exports.
Joseph Akinlaja, secretary general of the powerful Nigeria Labour Congress, said its members "stopped work at the oil terminals."
But he said it would take days to effect exports, since automated loadings had been pre-programmed.
Don Boham, a spokesman for Royal Dutch/Shell, which accounts for half the country's production of 2.5 million barrels a day, said some workers in the commercial capital of Lagos were unable to come to work because buses and taxis were not running.
But "so far there has been no reports of disruptions to production and exports," he told The Associated Press.
Deji Haastrup, Nigeria spokesman for ChevronTexaco, said the company's employees hadn't joined the strike yet and that production and exports remained unhindered.
Nigeria is the world's seventh-biggest oil exporter.
No violence was immediately reported, unlike a 2003 fuel-price strike that saw police kill at least 12 protesters.
The government insists the increases in the government-set price are necessary to stop shortages and prevent massive smuggling of fuel to neighbouring countries, where prices are higher.
At fuel stations Tuesday, gasoline sold for $51.5 cents Cdn a litre - up from $41.8 cents before the May 29 increase. Critics argue the inflationary burden is too much for most citizens of oil-rich Nigeria, more than 70 per cent of whom live on less than $1.35 a day.
Commuters besieged gas stations, banks and shops Tuesday in order to stock up on fuel, money and groceries ahead of the strike - which unions warned would last until fuel prices come down.
On Wednesday, few vehicles plied the normally traffic-clogged roads of Lagos, sub-Saharan Africa's most populous city.
Riot police kept watch over a small group of chanting university students and separate clusters of thugs known as "area boys" gathering on otherwise abandoned streets.
In the capital, Abuja, traffic was a bit heavier, although many shops and stores were also closed.
Armoured police vehicles placed at key intersections in the capital deterred union members from staging rallies as anticipated.
Talks called by President Olusegun Obasanjo's government on Monday and Tuesday failed to avert the strike. Labour leaders met with state oil company officials Wednesday.
Afterward, union officials told reporters they had received assurances the price hike would be rescinded. Pump prices were down slightly at a few stations in the capital, while higher prices remained at others.
Nigeria Labour Congress leader Adams Oshiomhole said the prices had dropped too little and at too few stations to call off the strike.
"The strike continues," Oshiomhole told reporters Wednesday evening. "The government has not complied with the court order. Nothing has changed."
