The general leading Nigeria's fight against rebels in the oil producing Niger Delta has been replaced.
Removing Brigadier General Elias Zamani had been one of the demands of the militant group still holding three foreign oil workers hostage.
However, an army spokesman said the general's redeployment was "routine".
The militants want a greater share of the region's oil wealth for local Ijaw people. Their attacks have led to a 20% drop in Nigeria's oil exports.
Multi-million dollar business
The militants say they are pleased Gen Zamani is going.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) had accused Gen Zamani of escalating the crisis by using helicopter gunships to attack barges used to smuggle stolen oil near one of their strongholds.
The BBC's Alex Last in Lagos says oil "bunkering" is a multi-million dollar business in which all sides, including the military, are said to be involved.
Revenues from the business also enabled armed groups in the Delta to buy more weapons.
A local community leader told the AFP news agency that they wanted a demilitarisation of the Delta region.
"We're a civilian community. We don't want this level of garrison," said Oboko Bello, head of the radical Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities, which has been asked to liaise between the authorities and the hostage-takers.
Our correspondent says the question now is will the new commander, Brigadier General AA Ilogho, director of the War College in the capital, Abuja, take a conciliatory approach to the crisis, or will he be more aggressive?
If his predecessor's experience is anything to go by, a military option is unlikely to work, our correspondent says.
Captivity
Six hostages were released last week but two US citizens and one Briton have now spent more than two weeks in captivity.
They are employees of US oil services company Willbros, seized while laying a pipeline for oil giant Shell.
Mend said that the remaining captives would be held until the group's demands were met.
They have also vowed to increase attacks on oil installations such as pipelines.
The militants said they wanted a pledge from the government that it would not launch reprisal attacks and said it should release two prominent local leaders.
The militants also demanded that Shell comply with a recent Nigerian court order and pay $1.5bn (£858m) in compensation for pollution in the Niger Delta, our correspondent says.
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