OilVoice - Rebels Attacks Second Nigerian Oil Facility in as Many Days

Rebels Attacks Second Nigerian Oil Facility in as Many Days

06 July 2009

Nigerian militants claim to have successfully attacked, and destroyed, a Chevron-owned strategic manifold only hours after attacking a similar facility owned by oil giant Anglo-Dutch Shell.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) ambushed the Okan manifold, which controls about 80% of Chevron’s crude output from the African nation. The station supplies crude to Chevron’s BOP Crude loading platform.

Chevron is yet to confirm the attack upon its facility in the volatile, yet oil-rich, Niger Delta.

In a rather semantic statement, the rebel group said: “As long as the Nigerian government and its special military taskforce (JTF) have chosen to carry out kidnappings and arson against innocent communities and individuals, Moses will fight for them.”

The MEND continued on to say that it carried out the attack to teach the JTF a lesson. The group also demanded the release of a traditional ruler it accused the military of abducting.

In a remarkable, and potentially paradigm shift in policy, some sections of the military hierarchy have indicated that they would be willing to accept the offer – provided they can negotiate terms pleasing to both sides. But MEND, a loose network of several armed military factions, has doubted the government’s sincerity in such matters.

On Sunday evening MEND attacked and destroyed the Shell well head at Cawthorn Channel 1, which connects the Bonny loading terminal in Rivers state.

To further continue the sudden escalation in violence – even relative to MEND’s trigger-happy level of activity – the rebels have vowed to thwart a $10 billion trans-Saharan gas pipeline project, linking Nigeria’s vast supply of proven oil reserves to energy-hungry Europe.

A deal involving three African countries – Nigeria, Algeria and Niger – was signed on Friday to build more than 4,000 km of gas pipeline running through the nation son its way to Europe.

As yet no date has been announced for the start of construction, but the first delivery of gas to the European market is scheduled for 2015.

The continued unrest in Nigeria has severely hampered its oil production ability. Since the start of 2006 Nigeria’s exports have been reduced to 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd), from its previous record level of 2.6 million bpd. As a consequence Nigeria has found itself constantly struggling to meet its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) output quotas.