Shell Defends Military Use of Its Airfield
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Shell allowed Nigerian military to launch attack against rebels from its company airfield,
Shell defended the use by the Nigerian military of its airfield in the oil city of Warri as a base to launch air strikes against militants in the Niger Delta.
A Nigerian helicopter gunship opened fire on Wednesday on eight barges allegedly used by smugglers to transport stolen crude oil from the creeks of the delta to tanker ships waiting offshore, a military spokesman said.
Following the raid, a local militant organization accused the army of targeting civilians and threatened violent reprisals against Shell to punish the firm for allowing its airstrip to be used for military operations.
Shortly after the warning was issued, a Shell oil well caught fire in another part of the delta, cutting production by 37,800 barrels per day. But it was not immediately clear if this was as a result of sabotage or an accident.
"Armed intervention is always a decision for the proper authorities and not for private companies such as Shell," a Shell spokeswoman said. "As in any other part of the world, the government has a duty and an obligation to uphold the rule of law, while at the same time respecting the human rights of its people," she said.
"Any questions about military operations and their use of airstrips during their operations in the Niger Delta should be raised with the appropriate authority," she added.
Shell did not confirm or deny that its Osubi airstrip in Warri had been the base of the attack, but the local military task force's Mi-35P ground attack chopper was seen there on Wednesday by witnesses.
Osubi lies north of Warri, and was built by Shell as the city developed as a center of Nigeria's oil industry. It is still managed by the energy company, but is also used by military and civilian air operators.
The Mi-35P -- a Russian-built armored gunship, also known as a "Hind," is equipped with rockets and with twin 30mm machineguns.
Last month, Shell's activities in the region were targeted by an ethnic Ijaw militant group angered by the arrest of two local leaders. The group blew up a pipeline, kidnapped four foreign workers, and killed 14 government soldiers.
After last Wednesday's air strike, a statement contained in an email address used by the rebels demanded that Shell stop allowing Osubi to be used by the military.
"This airstrip is supposed to be utilized for civilian purposes, but is now apparently being utilized by the military with the consent of Shell as a staging ground for attacks on Ijaw settlements in the Niger Delta," it said.
The group warned that "we are very well capable of shooting down aircraft landing and taking off" from Osubi and might do so, if "the use of this privately owned civilian airstrip for military operations is not discontinued".
Meanwhile, firefighters were battling the blaze on an oil well in the Cawthorne Channel, part of the New Calabar River, 18 miles south of the oil city of Port Harcourt, Shell stated.
"The cause of the incident is not known, and the company's fire crew and oil spill control, as well as technical intervention teams, are being mobilized to the site," Shell's Public Affairs Manager Don Boham said.
While the fire continues, a nearby plant -- the Cawthorn Channel-1 flow station, has been shut down, cutting a production equivalent of 37,800 barrels per day.
Shell was forced to close down four of its Niger Delta flow stations last month, following violent guerrilla attacks, which resulted in a loss of 106,000 barrels per day before the Thursday's fire.
Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil exporter, producing around 2.6 million barrels per day, but most of its 130 million people live in grinding poverty, and there is much resentment in the delta of government and the oil firms.