Niger Delta Oil Facility Attacks Continue
In the wake of the attack Wednesday night on a Chevron offshore facility at the Okan field, the militant group Niger Delta Avengers claimed responsibility for an additional round of shoreside pipeline attacks.
Nigeria's special advisor to the president on the Niger Delta, Paul Boroh, confirmed to Premium Times that there had been an attack on the Abiteye oil pipeline in Warri.
"Pipeline vandalism is an avoidable self-inflicted agony," he said, citing economic disruption and environmental damage.
Avengers spokesman Madoch Agninibo warned in a statement on the group's site that more attacks on oil installations were being planned. He warned that "since [the government] have refused to listen to us, we are going to bring the country's economy to zero."
Tallying the damage, the Avengers said that they had attacked a crude line feeding Warri and Kaduna refineries; a gas line feeding Lagos and Abuja's power supply; Well D25 in Abiteye; and "major pipelines to effectively put the Abiteye, Alero, Dibi, Otunana and Makaraba flow stations that feed the Chevron tank farm out of operation."
It was not possible to confirm these claims, but local media sources reported attacks on an oil flow station feeding a Chevron tank farm in Warri and a gas line that feeds the Lagos and Abuja electricity generating stations.
A Chevron Nigeria Limited spokeswoman said that it would not be possible to give a statement at this time.
The militant group also claimed responsibility for an attack on Shell's Forcados pipeline in February, which shut down a 250,000 bpd export facility – an attack "that required knowledge of the area and sophisticated equipment," said an unnamed Western security expert.
Chevron Nigeria Limited normally produces about 240,000 barrels per day in Nigeria, the IBT reports. The firm says that it has shut in about 35,000 bpd from the platform assault; Bloomberg News estimates that 90,000 bpd per day were affected.
Nigeria's The Nation said that Thursday's shoreside attacks meant lost production of 40,000 barrels per day.
Bloomberg noted in its report that even before the recent attacks, Nigeria's oil output had fallen below 1.7 million barrels per day, down from a peak of over 2.2 million bpd a decade ago.