Mend sets US oil giant ablaze

2009-06-10 10:24

Lagos - The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, the main rebel group in southern Nigeria, said on Wednesday it had set a pumping station of US oil giant Chevron on fire.

Chevron's Otunana station in Niger Delta "is currently engulfed in fire after being overwhelmed by our fighters", Mend said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Chevron, Scott Walker, could not immediately confirm the claim but said the report was being investigated.

The group had warned of new attacks last weekend.

Mend has staged several attacks on international oil facilities in southern Nigeria as part of its campaign to get what it calls a fairer distribution of the region's oil wealth to local people.

Nigeria's oil production has been cut by more than a quarter because of the militant campaign over the past three years.

Unrest in the Niger Delta region has reduced Nigeria's daily output to 1.76 million barrels compared with 2.6 million barrels in January 2006.

Smoke out war criminals

Nigeria, which was once Africa's biggest oil producer, was overtaken some months back by Angola. Since then the two countries have vied for the position of top producer.

"As forewarned, a major 'Cordon and Search' operation by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) commenced today... (Tuesday) with devastating effects on the heavily fortified Chevron Otunana flow station in Delta state," Wednesday's rebel statement said.

The station, it added, "is currently engulfed in fire after being overwhelmed by our fighters."

"Code named 'Hurricane Piper Alpha', the objective is to smoke out war criminals of the Northern Nigerian armed forces who have taken refuge in oil installations and give them instant jungle justice," it added.

The past three years have also seen an upsurge in kidnappings of local and foreign oil workers in the volatile region.

On Sunday Mend had intensified its threat to attack the oil industry, warning that it would stand firm on a 72-hour ultimatum issued over the weekend.

Imminent attack

"The ultimatum (to local and foreign oil workers) expires about midnight (Monday) ... Our focus will be the oil industry as this is an oil war," the rebels said in an emailed statement.

Although the group did not give full details on the exact nature of the attack it planned to carry out on the oil industry in the Niger Delta, it clarified that the fight would be restricted to oil facilities.

"Hurricanes are never predictable by nature. So, we cannot predict what it will entail," said Mend in an earlier statement.

"An oil war simply means that the focus will be on oil politics and the fight will be restricted to oil infrastructure," the group explained in another email.

Mend on Saturday warned Niger Delta oil workers to leave within 72 hours to avoid an "imminent attack," a threat dismissed by the military as an "empty boast by a toothless gang".

The militants said the attack "will not discriminate on tribe, nationality or race when it sweeps across the region.

"The warning also applies to greedy individuals from oil communities tempted to carry out repair contracts on pipelines already destroyed", Mend said in its statement on Saturday.

- SAPA