Militants raid oil installation
2008-06-20 09:50
Lagos, Nigeria - Militants on speedboats raided an offshore oil installation nearly 160km from Nigeria's southern coastline, forcing Royal Dutch Shell to slash production and exposing Africa's biggest oil industry as vulnerable even on the high seas.
Thursday's attack by fighters of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, about 140km into the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea was the militant group's furthest-ever attack in the open ocean.
"The location for today's attack was deliberately chosen to remove any notion that offshore oil exploration is far from our reach," the group said in a statement. "The oil companies and their collaborators do not have any place to hide in conducting their nefarious activities."
The group is Nigeria's most effective militant gang. Its campaign of bombings of pipelines and attacks on export facilities, launched in 2006, had already slashed Nigeria's daily oil output by about 20%, helping send global oil prices to all-time highs.
Thursday's attack by gunmen riding in several open-hulled boats trimmed that 10% further. Shell confirmed the attack on a deep-water installation and said it had shut down about 200 000 barrels per day in production from the Bonga oil field.
The militants said they had aimed to destroy the oil installation's computer room but refrained at the last moment because it could have meant the needless death of the rig's staff members. But oil industry officials said it wasn't clear the militants had even boarded the structure.
Nigeria's oil industry, which is Africa's biggest, has eyed offshore development as a safer alternative to operations in the watery southern Niger Delta, where militants normally operate.
United States has offered to help
While militants sometimes venture out of the delta's creeks and swamps, no attack has been recorded as far out as Thursday's raid.
The militants said they would target oil and gas tankers in the area next, and said the oil companies should pull their foreign staff out of Nigeria until the long-simmering conflict in southern Nigeria is resolved.
The United States, which is a top customer of Nigeria's easily refined crude, has offered to help Nigeria calm its waters and has sent naval vessels on training missions to the Gulf of Guinea, which is Africa's offshore oil heartland.
MEND emerged in early 2006 as an umbrella for long-existing armed gangs involved in the lucrative but illegal tapping of pipelines and wells for crude oil, which is shipped overseas for resale.
But MEND showed particular sophistication in its military style raids, political rhetoric and communications with the media. Its attacks have been unrivalled by other militant outfits.
The militants also said they kidnapped an American worker from a supply vessel they came across while returning home from the attack. The seizure was confirmed by private security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity due to prohibitions on dealings with the media. The officials said two other seamen on the supply vessel were injured in that attack.
The US State Department confirmed that an American citizen had been taken hostage and demanded his liberation. "We would call on the individual's captors to release him immediately and unharmed," said State Department spokesperson Tom Casey.
Later, a militant leader who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid being arrested by the authorities told The Associated Press by telephone that the American had been released. That was confirmed by a private security official, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
- AP