Nigeria building up to becoming a major hot spot

There are 3 parts to this post. All are inter-related though. All related to the oil industry's exploitation (primarily Shell's) in Nigeria.
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1.

Nigerian Militants Retaliate Upon Military

Nigerian militants on early Sunday launched a series of attacks on oil facilities and military targets in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, blowing up a major trunk pipeline at Nembe creak and capturing oil and gas stations in the area, according to a statement sent by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) on Sunday.

The statement, reached here on Sunday, said the heavily armed MEND fighters in hundreds of war boats filing out from different MEND bases across the Niger Delta in solidarity to carry out destructive and deadly attacks on the

oil industry in Rivers state.

"By dawn, destroyed oil flow stations, gun boats, burst pipelines, dead and injured soldiers trailed in the aftermath of the "hurricane". Some specific
locations include the Soku Gas Plant, Chevron Platform at Kula, over 22 well

armed soldiers sent as reinforcement were intercepted, killed and dispossessed of their weapons, a major crude trunk pipeline at Nembe creek was blown up at several points," said the statement, signed by its spokesperson "Jomo Gbomo".

It said the operation would continue until the government of Nigeria appreciates that the solution to peace in the Niger Delta is justice, respect and dialogue.

The MEND statement also ordered that all international oil and gas loading vessels entering the region to drop anchor in the high sea or divert elsewhere until further notice.

"Failure to comply is taking a foolhardy risk of attack and destruction of the vessel," it said.

Oil companies are also asked to evacuate their staff from their field facilities.

MEND, who is in fight with Nigerian government forces, said in its previous statement sent on Saturday that 27 hostages, including five foreign oil
workers, have been trapped in fighting zone in Eleme-Tombia, a riverside community in the Degema council area of Rivers State.

It had also ordered on Saturday that oil companies to move out their workers

from the region within the next 24 hours, "because a hurricane is about to sweep through oil installations in the entire Niger Delta region", vowing to revenge the "unprovoked attack, and to launch an oil war in the region
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2.

Nigerian oil rebels hit new Shell facility


LAGOS (AFP) — A Nigerian militant group said Wednesday it acted with a new ally to stage an attack which destroyed a Royal Dutch Shell oil flow station in the African nation's main producing region.

As with other attacks since the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) declared an "oil war" on Sunday, the rebels moved in with speed boats, dynamite and hand grenades, the army said.

MEND also released two South African hostages on Tuesday night, the army said.

The attack on the Orubiri flow station was the third on a Shell target in 48 hours. US major Chevron has also been targeted this week.

MEND said in a statement sent to media that this time that it had attacked with another armed group, the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF).

"About 2200 (2100 GMT) on Tuesday, September 16, 2008, fighters from MEND and the NDVF in a new alliance attacked and destroyed the Orubiri flow station," MEND said.

The army confirmed tha attack.

"Yesterday night militants in eight speed boats attacked Orubiri with bombs, dynamite and hand grenades," army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Musa Sagir told AFP, adding that it was feared the facility caught fire.

Shell made no immediate comment. But there have already been two attacks on Shell facilities and two "shooting incidents" at facilities operated by Chevron this week.

MEND said it killed all the soldiers on guard at the Orubiri facility and took their weapons. Sagir denied the claim, saying "none of the 10 naval personnel or guards died or sustained injuries".

MEND renewed a warning to soldiers and oil workers to abandon all oil installations, including offshore.

"Soldiers and oil workers are advised to abandon all oil facilities including the off shore rigs of Bonga and Agbami as we want to minimize casualties before Hurricane Barbarossa arrives," the group said.

Hurricane Barbarossa is the code name it gave to its new offensive against foreign majors.

All the attacks since the weekend have been in Rivers state. They have affected a Shell flow station at Alakiri and pipeline at Bakana Front in Degema Local Government Area and Chevron facilities at Robertkiri and Idama.

"After Rivers, the hurricane will be heading to the neighboring states in the Niger Delta," MEND warned.

"The people of Rivers state should hold the governor Mr Rotimi Amaechi accountable for allowing the state to be the first to be visited. He should resign and a state of emergency (be) declared in Rivers state," the group said.

Since MEND took up arms in early 2006, Nigeria's oil output has been cut by at least one quarter.

Two South African hostages seized last week by pirates with 25 other people on a vessel off southern Nigeria were freed Tuesday night, the military said. Sagir told AFP no ransom was paid for the pair.

MEND had earlier Tuesday promised to release the South Africans, whom it said it rescued from pirates on Friday.

MEND said the two were among 27 rescued hostages, which also included 22 Nigerians, two Britons and a fifth foreigner thought to be Ukrainian.
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3.

Nigerian militants step up 'oil war' claiming sixth attack

LAGOS (AFP) — Militants in Nigeria said Saturday they had destroyed a pipeline run by Royal Dutch Shell in the sixth attack of a declared "oil war," with the armed group vowing to reduce oil exports to "zero."

Shell reacted by declaring force majeure on its exports from the Bonny terminal to release it from contractual delivery obligations as a result of the latest attacks.

The Bonny terminal was already under force majeure since July 29, but "we made another declaration as a result of production losses caused by the recent attacks on our facilities," a Shell spokeswoman in London told AFP.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the main group fighting for a greater share of southern Nigeria's oil wealth for local people, said it had destroyed the "major pipeline" in Rivers state late Friday.

MEND said the pipeline was located at Buguma Front in the Asari Toru region and was the latest target of the "oil war" the armed group launched on Sunday and has dubbed "Hurricane Barbarossa."

"The military and the government of Nigeria whose unprovoked attack on our position prompted this oil war are no match for a guerrilla insurgency of this kind," MEND said in an email to AFP.

MEND promised to "continue to nibble every day at the oil infrastructure in Nigeria until the oil exports reach zero." Oil and gas account for 90 percent of foreign exchange earnings in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with 140 million people.

Production currently ranges between 1.8 million and two million barrels per day compared with 2.6 million bpd two years ago.

Earlier in the week, Shell confirmed the first attack on its Alakiri flow station and a second one on the Greater Port Harcourt Swamp Line, both on Monday.

But as the week went on, Shell became progressively more tight-lipped, neither confirming nor denying claims of attacks on its Orubiri flow station, Rumuekpe pipeline and another pipeline at the Elem-Kalabari Cawthorne Channel axis in Rivers state.

The Anglo-Dutch oil company evacuated more than 100 employees as a precaution at the beginning of the week, according to a source in the oil sector.

The army and MEND have given conflicting versions of many of the incidents, MEND normally saying attacks were successful but the army saying they were repelled.

To further combat the violence in Nigeria's oil region, the government on September 10 announced it would create a ministry specifically responsible for maintaining calm and developing the Niger Delta.

MEND charges that the oil wealth of Nigeria -- now Africa's second largest petroleum exporter after recently losing first place to Angola -- is basically enjoyed by the federal government and only a fraction of it trickles down to the locals.

It also accuses oil companies of wreaking havoc on the environment.

MEND spokesman Jomo Gbomo on Saturday claimed to have grassroots support.

"The impoverished and neglected inhabitants of oil-producing communities consider our actions to these structures as good riddance to bad rubbish," he said.

"Oil exploration has brought only pain to them by way of environmental damage (farmlands, fishing and wildlife sanctuaries), harassment from the military and rape of under-aged girls by soldiers, extra-judicial killings of young men and development and wealth to other parts of the country at their detriment."

MEND presents its members as the champions of the region's Ijaw people, an ethnic group of some 14 million. It says its enemies are not Nigerian soldiers but rather the Nigerian federal government and the foreign oil companies such as Shell, Chevron and Agip.

But no one knows exactly who is behind the armed group and financing its operations, nor how many fighters are in its forces.

MEND has also warned it will attack the country's two big deep offshore fields, Shell's Bonga -- which was hit in June -- and Chevron's Agbami, as well as oil and gas tankers in Nigerian waters.