The costly toll was buried in the second half of a story in Tuesday's editions of This Day online, but CVX shareholders and others are unlikely to miss it.
The story said, in part:
Chevron: Militants destroy $500m oil facilities
By Mike Oduniyi, 02.08.2005
LAGOS -- U.S. oil major ChevronTexaco said yesterday that it had lost assets worth $500 million (N66.5 billion) to the crises in the Niger Delta.
The General Manager, Public and Government Affairs, of Chevron Nigeria Limited, Mr. Femi Odumabo, told THISDAY that the continued closure of its swamp oil facilities, which led to the loss of 140,000 bpd of crude production, apart from the huge financial losses, also resulted in drastic reduction in budget approved for it by the Nigerian government.
"Because of the crisis since 2003, we lost 140,000 bpd of production, our revenue has gone down and budget reduced," said Odumabo.
About 500 youths from Ugborodo community in Delta State had last Friday stormed the Escravos Oil Export Terminal, operated by Chevron, setting off fresh clashes with security agencies.
The community was said to be protesting the non implementation of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in 2002 with the oil firm, bordering on provision of more jobs and infrastructure.
The report provided yet abother good reason for U.S. warships in the region to try to secure a base in the friendlier Sao Tome and Principe islands 200 miles offshore from Nigeria in the Gulf of Guinea, where oil surveys have shown there is the potential to recover some $14 billion barrels of oil from kilometer-deep waters in the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Zone and both the Nigerian and Sao Tomean Exclusive Economic Zones.
Nigeria, which fell under military rule for most of the 1990's, has been seizing oilfields, exacting billion-dollar fines against oil companies and demanding extraordinary expenditures by its joint venture partners including ExxonMobil, ChevronTexeaco, Total, Agip and Eni.
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