Nigerian militants capture oil installations
Associated Press
WARRI, Nigeria — Ethnic militants on Saturday threatened to blow up 11 multinational oil installations they claimed to have captured in retaliation for government military raids.
Dan Ekpebide, a leader of Ijaw tribal fighters in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta, said his followers took over oil pipeline facilities belonging to ChevronTexaco, Royal/Dutch Shell and TotalFinaElf on Friday. The companies had earlier evacuated the sites during unrest that has killed scores of people.
ctv.ca
Warri: Shell, Chevron, Elf Close Operations in Delta
March 24, 2003
Mike Oduniyi
Lagos And Onwuka Nzeshi in Warri
Nigeria loses N7bn oil revenue; Army arrest 17 Ijaw youths
The crisis in Warri, Delta State, at the weekend hit hard at the country's economy as three major oil producing companies, Shell, Chevron and TotalFinalElf shut down their operations in the area.
This followed the escalation of the crisis initially involving militant Ijaw and Itsekiri youths.
The youths are now waging full-scale attacks on oil facilities. Army authorities said yesterday they have arrested 17 Ijaw youths suspected to be involved in the attack on soldiers and oil installations. Some youths suspected to be Ijaws were said to have seized 11 crude pipelines.
Shell, Chevron and Elf were said to have shut their operations on the strength of information that a massive raid on Warri is being planned by military authorities in search of militant youths that had attacked and killed dozens of soldiers.
Chevron said in a statement yesteday that it had shut in oil production, amounting to 440,000 barrels per day, to relocate its workers from the Escravos terminal and offshore platforms.
"The safety of people is our absolute priority and is the reason for our decision to shut in production," said Chevron's Managing Director, Mr Jay Pryor, adding that while the unrest was not directed at the company, it was not safe for its workers to remain in the western Niger Delta.
"The total amount of CNL operated shut-in is now 440,000 bpd and 285 million cubic feet of gas, in which the company has a 40 percent equity interest," Pryor said.
THISDAY checks revealed that the Shell Petroleum Deve-lopment Company (Nigeria's biggest oil producer), also shut down all its operations and evacuated all its staff from Warri at the weekend.
Sources said this decision had already been communicated to the Federal Government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
"Shell has shut all its flow stations and have moved out all its workers from the zone," said a source, adding that the NNPC had been duly informed that Shell would not be pumping crude from the Warri area.
The company on Friday declared a force majeure, meaning it could not meet its crude oil export commitments to buyers, after it said it had shut-in a total of 175,000 barrels per day (bpd).
French oil firm TotalFinaElf also said yesterday it had shut down its operation in Delta State due to the crisis. Elf, Nigeria's fifth largest oil producer, operates from the area through its only lease in bloc OML 57 that was producing 7,500 bpd.
Consequently, the oil production loss in the country stood at 622,500 bpd. In monetary terms, the nation lost a total of $56.03 million (or N7.1 billion) in the past three days.
However, 17 Ijaw youths were yesterday arrested by soldiers on peace keeping operations in Warri, as troops commenced a crack down on armed youths who have killed no fewer than six soldiers and wounded several others in the last one week of communal unrest.
The youths were arrested at a hide-out where they were allegedly loading their rifles for a fresh round of rampage. A brand new AK 47 rifle and 28 rounds of live ammunition were recovered on the spot.
Director of Army Public Relations, Nigerian Army, Colonel Emeka Onwuamaegbu disclosed this yesterday at the NNS Umakun, Navy base, Warri, where the militants were paraded before newsmen.
Pointing at the men, Col. Onwuamaegbu said: "These are Ijaw militants that we arrested this morning. I speak only for the Nigerian Army; they (the militants) have killed six soldiers, the latest two being only yesterday. That same yesterday, they also wounded two additional soldiers.
"We have arrested them and after interrogating them we shall hand them over to the appropriate law enforcement agencies," he said.
The arrested men were taken away in a military truck painted in navy blue colour amidst sporadic gun shots. THISDAY learnt they were being taken into custody in another military base.
Onwuamaegbu who decried the current spate of youth militancy in the Niger-Delta and the proliferation of arms warned that democracy was not a license for civilians to engage in armed struggles.
"Democracy does not entitle militants to start killing law enforcement agents and that we have not adopted more aggressive posture does not mean we don't know how to get them," the army spokesman stated.
Meanwhile, the military troops participating in the ongoing operation have intensified their campaign to flush out the Ijaw militants whom, reports say, have sacked no fewer than six villages inhabited by their Itsekiri neighbours.
THISDAY checks revealed that the military high command was already perfecting strategies to use military helicopters in its operations owing to the difficulties the soldiers encountered in their attempts to dislodge the youths with naval gun boats alone.
Under the new plan, the military would use the helicopters for aerial surveillance in aid of soldiers on board vessels, most of which cannot meander through the numerous creeks in the battle zone.
It could be recalled that Ijaw youths suspected to be from the Warri South-West Council of Delta State launched an offensive attack on Itsekiri villages, penultimate Thursday forcing many residents of the island communities to flee their homes.
The reason for the uprising is still a subject of controversy but analysts have linked the war to the Ijaw struggle for political emancipation in the Warri South-West Council through the equitable delineation of electoral wards.
But while the military was ready for a crack down on the youths in Warri, some major oil producing communities at the weekend, threatened fresh unrest, handing out a three-week ultimatum to the Federal Government to address the neglect of their communities or face dire consequences.
Operating under the aegis of the Association of Major Oil Producing Communities (AMOPC), the group claimed that their communities play host to six major oil fields that generate an average of N1.427 billion into the federal treasury on a daily basis, but expressed regret at the level of underdevelopment in these communities.
In a petition addressed to President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr. Godwin Omene, the group expressed dismay that after four years of democracy and about three years since the inauguration of the NDDC, their communities namely, Egbemo-Angalabiri, Peretorugbene and Ogbotobo, all in Ekeremor local council of Bayelsa State had remained epitomes of neglect, poverty and environmental devastation.
The petition, endorsed by the association's president, Chief Bolougbene Sapele; secretary, Mr. Agbaragu Ijebuode as well as its zonal leaders, Messrs Felix Okubo and Perry George alleged that the impoverishment of their people was a deliberate attempt by some powerful elements in the NDDC and warned that the situation could have serious consequences for the oil firms operating in the area.
"It is quite disheartening that in spite of our enormous contributions to the nation's economy and the consequent health hazards associated with oil exploration and production, our communities are unduly denied their rightful place in the allocation of projects by the NDDC.
Leaders of the association warned that should the relevant authorities ignore their complaints and ultimatum, "the communities will be constrained to take steps that will make the area ungovernable for we shall no longer sit back and watch further gross marginalisation while we contribute the bulk of the nation's resources."
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