Shell Petroleum Development Company had an average production level of 938,000 barrels of oil per day in the third quarter of the year 2005, the company said recently. The loss amounts to 18 percent of its daily production.
Blazing Tensions In Nigeria -- A huge blast killed at least 8 children and leveled a remote fishing village when an armed militia group dynamited a Shell oil pipeline in Rivers State at around 10pm Monday night, halting the flow of 170,000 barrels of crude oil per day. There is currently no estimate of how long the flow will be interrupted. The lost capacity amounts to 7 percent of Nigeria's daily output, and 18 percent of Shell Nigeria's.
Photo: The Punch of Nigeria
Here is the latest on the attack from Wednesday's editions of Punch of Nigeria:
Militia group blows up oil pipeline, 8 feared dead
by Soni Daniel and Sola Adebayo
Armed youths suspected to be members of one of the two major militia groups in Rivers State on Monday night blew up a pipeline belonging to the Shell Petroleum Development Company in Agba Okwan Asarama, Andoni Local Government Area.
Eight children were reportedly killed by the fire, which erupted from the pipeline and spread to other parts of the sleepy community.
And in Adeje, Okpe Local Government Area of Delta State, a Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation pipeline that was also vandalised, caught fire.
Eyewitnesses told our correspondents that the armed youths arrived in Agba Okwan Asarama in four motorised boats around 10pm and chased away the residents before blowing up the SPDC pipeline with dynamite.
The Chairman of Andoni Local Government Area, Mr. Mowan Ettete, who confirmed the incident on Tuesday, said he had initiated moves to evacuate the displaced residents.
Ettete said, “We are surprised by this callous attack on our people by militia men and we are calling on the government and the oil company to come to the aid of the victims to save their lives.
“So far, we have a report that no fewer than eight children have been roasted and their corpses have been recovered.
“The fishing settlement has been completely burnt and thousands of people are missing from the area.”
The Chairman of the Agba Okwan Asarama Community Development Committee, Chief Oraka Benjamin, called on the state government and the SPDC “to do something urgently to put out the fire.”
Our correspondents reported that naval personnel and SPDC officials had been mobilised to assess the extent of damage.
The SPDC’s Corporate External Affairs Manager, Don Boham, said that preliminary investigations revealed that the fire might have been caused by a dynamite attack.
Boham added that the SPDC had shut production from Diebu Creek and Nun River fields as well as all Land Area facilities except Rumuekpe, in order to put out the fire.
“Some 170,000 barrels per day net oil has been deferred,” he said, adding that his company had referred the attack to the relevant government agencies.
He however pointed out that the incident might not be unconnected with the invasion by gunmen of a security post at the SPDC’s Cawthorne Channel field in Fisiokiri and the attempted attack on a tugboat belonging to the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas.
Boham who sympathised with people, who might have been affected in this incident, said that a medical team had been put on standby in Port Harcourt to treat those injured.
The leaders of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujaheedeen Asari Dokubo, and the Niger Delta Vigilance Group, Mr. Ateke Tom, have large youth followers in the oil-rich region.
Dokubo is being tried in Abuja for alleged treason while Ateke is said to have gone into hiding.
In some states in the southern part of the country, fears of fuel scarcity loomed on Tuesday as an attempt by some people to vandalise an NNPC pipeline in Adeje resulted in fire outbreak.
The development forced the management of the Warri Area Office of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary of the NNPC, to suspend further pumping of petroleum products through the pipeline on Monday night.
The pipeline conveys refined petroleum products from Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company to Edo; Kogi; Ondo; Ogun; Oyo; Lagos; Osun; and Ekiti states.
The pipeline fire occurred barely 48 hours after 15 people died while siphoning petrol from Ethiope River, near Sapele, Delta State and Ologbo, near Benin, Edo State.
It was learnt that the Zonal Commander of the Task Force on Pipeline Vandalisation, Mr. Isiaka Pachiko, led a team of maintenance engineers and fire fighters to the scene on Monday evening.
The fire was still raging when one of our correspondents visited the scene.
The PUNCH, Wednesday, December 21, 2005
This was the late-breaking Reuters story from Nigeria:
Nigerian oil pipeline blast kills 8, hits output
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) - A suspected dynamite attack on a major Nigerian oil pipeline killed at least eight people and cut output from the world's eighth largest exporter by seven percent, authorities said on Tuesday.
The sabotage by unidentified gunmen on the pipeline operated by Royal Dutch Shell also caused a major oil spill and fire in the remote southern Niger Delta, the company said.
"The attack was very devastating ... the whole community has been razed down by the explosion. Eight corpses have been recovered so far and many more are still missing," Monwan Etete, chairman of Andoni local government area, told journalists in the Rivers state capital Port Harcourt.
Shell closed two oilfields to help curb the fire and said that 170,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil output had been "deferred". The company originally said in a statement that only 170 bpd were affected.
"The fire may have been caused by a dynamite attack carried out by unknown persons," Shell's statement said.
Video footage showed flames as tall as a four-storey building from a slick on the water's surface.
Villagers were seen paddling to safety in dugout canoes.
The pipeline blast followed shortly after two other security incidents at oil and gas installations in the delta, which pumps almost all of Nigeria's 2.4 million bpd, Shell said.
An unknown gunman attacked a security post in the nearby Cawthorne Channel field, and there was another attempted attack on a tugboat servicing the liquefied natural gas plant at Bonny.
"This seems to suggest coordinated attacks, but it's difficult to be conclusive about it," said a senior oil industry official, asking not to be named.
The violence could be linked to the downfall of the former governor of neighbouring Bayelsa state, who is due to face money laundering charges on Wednesday, or to frustration by oil thieves who have seen their activities curtailed by security forces recently, he added.
Industry officials estimate that large-scale crude oil theft has dropped from 100,000 bpd earlier this year to about 20,000 bpd recently because of a heavier military presence in the vast wetlands region.
"What is clear is that this was sabotage with malicious intent," the source said.
UpstreaOnline also had a story this morning on the blaze, which it said sent glames billowing "ten storeys," or about 100 feet into the air:
Nigeria pipeline still blazing
By Upstream staff
Oil workers in boats and a helicopter circled a huge pipeline blaze in remote southern Nigeria on Wednesday, surveying the damage caused by a suspected dynamite attack that killed at least eight people.
Tuesday's attack by unknown gunmen on the pipeline operated by Shell, located in the Opobo Channel in the Niger Delta, caused a major slick and fire, cutting output by 170,000 barrels per day.
"The fire is still blazing. It's as high as a 10-storey building. There is thick black smoke billowing," a Reuters witness said.
A Shell spokesman said work was ongoing to determine the extent of the damage, and there was no estimate yet of how long the outage would last. It represents a 7% cut in output from the world's eighth biggest exporter of crude.
The nearby community of Asagba Okwan Asarama was deserted. About 20 huts, close to where Tuesday's blast ripped through the pipeline, were reduced to blackened ruins. A local fisherman, who was on the open sea when the blast took place, was desperately searching for his wife and four children. He said he did not know if they had fled or been killed in the explosion.
A local government official from Rivers state, where the community is located, said on Tuesday eight corpses had been recovered from the site and other people were missing.
Shell has closed two oilfields to help curb the fire.
Industry sources have speculated that Tuesday's pipeline attack and two other recent security incidents at oil and gas installations in the delta could be part of a coordinated plan, though there is no certainty.
Motives could include revenge by supporters of the impeached governor of neighbouring Bayelsa state, who is due to face corruption charges on Wednesday, or frustration by oil thieves who have been hindered by a recent crackdown, sources say.
The BBC reported that a local government official said he thought the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force, led by Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, who is in prison on treason charges, may be behind the attacks.
Tip if hip.
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