Nigerian Militants Step Up Sabotage of Oil Installations

Militants in the Niger delta mounted fresh attacks on oil installations yesterday, extending a wave of sabotage that has crippled exports from Africa’s leading oil producer.

The guerrillas seized a Nigerian army post in waterways east of the city of Warri after soldiers fled, allowing them to dynamite a floating barracks block and an oil pipeline operated by Royal Dutch Shell.

A Shell spokeswoman confirmed the oil pipeline attack and said the boat was abandoned when the attackers blew it up. It was unclear who owned the boat.

The Anglo-Dutch multinational, the biggest foreign operator in Nigeria, has evacuated all its facilities in the immediate area, a stretch of creeks and swamps which normally produces 500,000 barrels a day.

The attacks sent oil prices surging in London amid concern that the world’s eighth largest producer was facing months of turmoil. Despite reassurances from the International Energy Agency (IEA), threats of further action from the rebels against installations in the Niger delta pushed up the price of a barrel of Brent crude by $1.46 to $61.35 in the City.

Geoff Pyne, an independent oil consultant, said: "There is a realization that no one can be complacent about supplies."

IEA analyst Harry Tchilinguirian said high US fuel stocks and refinery maintenance should soften the blow of losing so much Nigerian oil.

"Yes, it’s a disruption of a sizeable amount. But in the short term we have very heavy inventories and very heavy maintenance in the United States so you can mitigate some of it," he said.

Yesterday’s violence followed a series of raids at the weekend which damaged several installations and resulted in the kidnap of nine foreign employees of a Shell subsidiary. A spokesman for the militants said their fate had not been decided.

The group, comprising three Americans, two Thais, two Egyptians, a Briton and a Filipino, was seized by up to 40 gunmen who stormed a pipe-laying barge.

In emailed statements to news agencies the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) said its goal was to punish oil corporations and the Nigerian government for siphoning off the region’s wealth without returning anything to its impoverished ethnic Ijaw communities.

Government officials say the militants are bandits whose real aim is to sow chaos so they can steal the oil, a practice known as bunkering.

The militants set a target last month of halting about a third of Nigeria’s 2.5m daily barrels, most of it sweet crude bound for refineries in the United States and Europe. If yesterday’s attacks are confirmed that target could be reached soon.

The Mend statement said it overran a Nigerian army houseboat and an oil pipeline switching station. "Both were destroyed with explosives," it said. No casualties were reported.

Shell confirmed that several flow stations had closed. Henry Imhalenjaye, a boat captain who operates in the coastal swamp, told Agence France Press that six flowstations west of Warri were not operating yesterday.

On Sunday the militants threatened to fire rockets at international oil tankers, the first time such a threat had been made.

The Nigerian military said it could guarantee the security of shipping but admitted that it did not know the capability of its foes. Much of their arsenal was supplied by the government in 2003 to help control the delta during elections.

British hostage

Armed Nigerian militants yesterday said they will decide the fate of a kidnapped British oil worker in the coming days. John Hudspith was seized in a raid on a barge contracted by oil company Shell on Saturday while laying a pipeline.

Eight other international workers were also taken by members of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta

The militants have warned that the hostages may be killed in crossfire with government forces.