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Oil installation attacked in southern Nigeria
AFP
LAGOS
Petroleumworld.com 12 15 06Armed men have attacked an oil installation belonging to the Royal Dutch Shell company in Nigeria's volatile southern Niger delta region, industry sources said Friday.
They said there were no casualties in the attack late Thursday afternoon, but a number of oil workers were being held at the facility, in the southern Bayelsa State.
"Negotiations are going on. Contact has been established," Bayelsa Police Commissioner Hafiz Ringim told AFP by telephone, confirming that as far as he knew "no one has been killed and no one has been wounded" in the attack.
He was unable to say how many assailants carried out the raid or how many boats they used.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.
There are unconfirmed reports that the attackers are trying to negotiate a cash payment in exchange for vacating the facility.
The installation's pumping station, which normally produces 12,000 barrels of oil per day, was shut down.
Last month, the same oil facility was attacked by a dozen armed men, two of whom were killed by the military.
Nigeria, which this week hosted for the first time a meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), is encountering mounting trouble in the restive Niger delta, where attacks on oil installations and oil workers are growing more and more frequent.
The attacks have caused Nigeria's crude production to drop by about 25 percent.
In the past six years around 600 people, including a number of foreigners, have died in the trouble and more than 180 oil workers have been taken hostage by militant groups who say their aim is to demand a larger share of the region's oil wealth for local communities.
The last hostage-taking incident goes back to last Thursday when three Italians and one Lebanese national were abducted from a facility belonging to Italy's Agip.
They are still being held by gunmen.
A militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), claimed responsibility for kidnapping the four and threatened to launch further attacks on the oil industry in the following days.
AFP 15 1153 GMT 12 06
Copyright© 2001 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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