Concern Mounts Over Attack on Oil Platforms
•AC calls for probe •House meets oil chiefs today
From Stanley Nkwazema in Abuja and Fidelia Okwuonu in Lagos, 06.23.2008
There are mounting concerns in the country over attacks by Niger Delta militants on oil flow lines and installations particularly on Nigeria’s deep offshore platforms.
Most analysts now see the attack on offshore platforms as not just an attack on the economic nerve centre of the country but an assault on Nigeria’s sovereignty given that the platforms are outside the Niger Delta and have no ecological impacts on the lives of the people of the area.
Militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) last Thursday attacked Shell Bonga Field, the biggest offshore oil platform in the country, resulting in 200,000 barrel per day shut-in.
Later that day, the Escravos-Abileye-Olero flow lines belonging to American oil giant, Chevron Nigeria Limited, were also blown off by suspected militants, leading to about 120,000 bpd shut in.
With the attacks, over 1 million bpd would have been shut in cumulatively, which is about 50 per cent of Nigeria’s oil production.
“This goes beyond attack on oil platforms; it is an act of sabotage. It is an attack on Nigeria’s sovereignty. If the militants can now be attacking offshore facilities, then it is a very serious matter,” THISDAY was told last night.
Worried about the development, the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) is expected to meet with the National Security Adviser (NSA) Sarki Mukhtar, Minister of State Petroleum Odein Ajumogobia, and Defence Minister Yayale Ahmed today in Abuja over the attacks.
Chairman of the committee, Hon. Tam Brisibe, told THISDAY last night that if the attack continued, it might affect the 2008 budget.
Brisibe said Nigeria was losing so much as a result of inadequate security in the area.
Official sources put Nigeria’s daily loss from the activities of militants in the Niger Delta at $84 million.
However, that figure is conservative and may be as much as N140 million per day with the latest attacks.
Oil chiefs in the country are also expected at the meeting with the House scheduled for 10 am in Committee Room 327 of the New Building of the National Assembly.
Brisibe said: “Bonga oil field is about 150 kilometres off Nigerian shores, if the militants could get that far and attack oil facility, then there is cause for worry.
“We have to find out what measures are being put in place now by the executive to sort out this problem. We cannot sit down and hide under the guise of insecurity and allow investments in the industry go down the drain.”
Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Publicity, Hon. Eziuche Ubani, also said the issue had gone beyond the emancipation of the Niger Delta.
He said the House was worried that criminals were cashing in on the problems in the area to enrich themselves at the expense of the true struggle
The House, he said, was so touched by the incidents and felt it was time President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua expedited action on his plans for the energy sector particularly in relation to the Niger Delta situation.
“The House is disturbed over the attack on Bonga oil field by militants. We had thought that the militants would not be able to get to the field which is about 150 kilometres away from the shore. We should do something drastic and urgently too about the situation in the Niger Delta.
“Bonga oil field is the country’s major oil field and the attack is likely to have serious consequences on the economy. The executive arm of government should do something fast,” Ubani said.
He expressed fears that the trend, if not checked, might cause the 2008 budget to derail, maintaining that something urgent be done about it.
Meanwhile, the Action Congress has said the long simmering Niger Delta crisis may
finally spin out of control with the attack on Shell's deep offshore Bonga oil field last Thursday and another one on crude oil pipeline in Delta State few hours later.
The party called for a probe into the circumstances leading to the attacks “by a supposedly rag-tag band of militants.”
According to a statement issued yesterday in Abuja, the party said: “This hitherto unimaginable attack has finally turned the Niger Delta violence to a crisis of immense proportion that can only spell doom for the Nigerian state.
“Since the militants' favoured means of mobility - speedboats – will find it difficult to travel that far offshore, such a probe must find out how the militants were able to reach Bonga. Could they have been assisted by a mother vessel? If so, who owns such vessel?
“Also, what kind of security cordon is in place for such an important facility as the Bonga, which produces over 200,000 barrels of oil per day - which is about one tenth of the country's total oil production?''
The party warned the Federal Government against embarking on its usual knee-jerk response to the crisis, especially the resort to a military crackdown and the jamborees in the name of 'summits of stakeholders'.
“As we have said many times through this medium, the real solution to what is fast becoming a declaration of war in the Niger Delta is for the Federal Government to talk to the REAL stakeholders, not the so-called elders whose stock in trade is to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds to maximise their gains.
“As it is, the federal government has either totally ignored the real stakeholders or allowed itself to be deceived into inconsequential MOUs and Accords with groups that are only interested in looting the commonwealth for their personal gains.
“We also make bold to say that past, made-for-television summits on the Niger Delta have yielded no positive results. Bringing in even the secretariat of the UN will not make a success of another summit for as long as the real stakeholders - the people in the oil communities themselves - are not involved in such an effort,'' AC said.
The party said the attack on Bonga has shown that the militants in the Niger Delta
could attack, without qualms, any facility that catches their fancy in the Niger Delta.
The attack, it said, had also shown that the military option could not and would not work in resolving the crisis that has been the biggest threat yet to Nigeria’s economic well being.
“After all, thousands of soldiers have been deployed to the region to help protect the same facilities that are being attacked at will by these militants.
According to government figures, Nigeria is losing 84 million dollars daily to the incessant attacks in the Niger Delta. That translates to about 2.52 billion dollars per month and more than a whopping $30 billion per year.
