MEND Claims More Attacks Against Shell

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) on Thursday launched a new attack on a Shell Development Company pipeline in Rivers state of Nigeria.

In the statement sent via e-mail, the most prominent rebel group in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta region said its members had destroyed a major pipeline belonging to Shell Development Company at the Elem- Kalabari Cawthorne Channel axis in the southeastern state of Rivers.

SAD WEEK FOR OIL FIRMS

Besides the new attack, MEND, who has been in intense fighting with Nigerian government forces since Sept. 13, had allegedly destroyed three more oil pipelines in Rivers state.

Meanwhile, several oil flow stations and gas plants have also been blown up in Rivers state since last Saturday.

The rebel group has ordered oil companies to evacuate their workers and foreign vessels to leave ports in Nigeria's oil region to avoid militant attacks, warning that it will extend the "oil war" to neighboring states in the Niger Delta region.

The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has suffered huge losses. Several employees were killed in the attacks.

"Regrettably, a community station guard was killed during the incident... Four other people are being treated for injuries sustained during the incident at the Shell hospital in Port Harcourt," said a SPDC spokesperson in an e-mail when the first attack on Shell's Alakiri flow station, gas plant and field logistics base was reported on Sept. 15.

"SPDC is aware of the difficulty the security situation places on staff, and continues to monitor developments," the spokesperson said.

It was apparently just the beginning of the ongoing battle, and no one can tell when it will end.
Security sources said Nigerian forces need to further prove their capability until attacks on oil facilities in the region were forestalled.

OIL PRODUCTION CRIPPLED

On Sept. 10, Nigerian President Yar'Adua started to reshuffle his government and created a new Ministry of Niger Delta, vowing to promote development and peace in the country's oil-rich area.

But his efforts have apparently been crippled by the fresh fighting between government forces and the rebel group in the region, so has been oil production, the nation's cash cow.

The rampant attacks on Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta region have long been a big headache for the Nigerian government.

Since the beginning of 2006, militant groups emerged in the Niger Delta region, fighting for more local control of the region's natural resources, especially oil, through kidnapping oil workers and attacks on oil facilities.

More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped and a string of attacks on oil pipelines, wells and terminals have been registered by now, leading to a drop of about 25 percent oil production compared with the country's peak output of 2.6 million barrels per day.

According to reports from the Associated Press, a spokesman for Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigeria's state oil company, said Wednesday that militant attacks are now cutting the country's daily oil production by about 1 million barrels a day, putting the country's daily output at around 1.5 million barrels per day, a total loss of 40 percent since the militant campaign began in 2005.

As more than 80 percent of the country's revenue relies on crude oil sales, the oil production shut-in could be a blow big enough to undermine its ambition to become the world's top 20 economies by 2020.

It is difficult to figure out what repercussions the dramatic drop in oil production of the world's 8th largest oil exporter would have in other parts of the world, which is struggling in the face of a new bout of financial turmoil in recent days.

(China News Agency)