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Nigeria Militants Take Hostages, Attack Oil Terminal
Nigerian militants took nine foreign hostages and attacked two pipelines and Royal Dutch Shell Plc's Forcados offshore oil export terminal today in retaliation for raids by government military forces.
Willbros Group Inc. said the hostages were taken from a boat that was on contract for Shell, Nigeria's top international oil producer. The attacks sparked a fire at the Forcados terminal, which has a capacity of 400,000 barrels a day, and an explosion at the Chanomi pipeline, Shell spokesman Don Boham said.
``It could be that it shuts down all of Shell's onshore operations in Nigeria,'' Simon Wardell, an analyst in London at Global Insight, said in an interview today. ``The markets are going to discount Nigerian production in the price of oil.''
Shell's venture has halted the flow of 106,000 barrels a day, or about 5 percent of the country's total output, through the Forcados terminal since a Jan. 11 attack by the militants on the Trans-Ramos pipeline. The militants have vowed to launch attacks to cut the export capacity of Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer, by 30 percent in February.
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http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=agaxJWl1PfHU&refer=home
Nigerian militants launched a string of attacks on the world's eighth largest oil exporter on Saturday, abducting nine foreign workers, bombing a major oil export platform and sabotaging two pipelines.
Royal Dutch Shell suspended exports from the 380,000 barrel-a-day Forcados tanker terminal, a senior industry source said, bringing the impact from recent attacks on oil supply to one fifth of Nigeria's 2.4 million barrels daily.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said the attacks were a response to military air raids on villages in Delta state earlier this week and would be followed by another wave of violence "on a grander scale".
"These hostages are human shields. Subsequent attacks on other installations will be drastic as we have no intentions of taking hostages," the militants said, calling on all oil workers to leave the delta.
The militants said they wanted more local control over the Niger Delta's vast oil wealth and the release of two ethnic Ijaw leaders, including a militia leader who is on trial for treason.
"Expatriates must realise that they have been caught up in a war and the Nigerian government can do nothing to guarantee the security of anyone," they added.
In military-style attacks before dawn on Saturday, militants stormed an offshore barge operated by U.S. oil services company Willbros and abducted nine workers -- three Americans, one Briton, two Thais, two Egyptians and a Filipino.
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``It could be that it shuts down all of Shell's onshore operations in Nigeria,'' Simon Wardell, an analyst in London at Global Insight, said in an interview today. ``The markets are going to discount Nigerian production in the price of oil.''
Shell's venture has halted the flow of 106,000 barrels a day, or about 5 percent of the country's total output, through the Forcados terminal since a Jan. 11 attack by the militants on the Trans-Ramos pipeline. The militants have vowed to launch attacks to cut the export capacity of Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer, by 30 percent in February.
More
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=agaxJWl1PfHU&refer=home
Nigerian militants launched a string of attacks on the world's eighth largest oil exporter on Saturday, abducting nine foreign workers, bombing a major oil export platform and sabotaging two pipelines.
Royal Dutch Shell suspended exports from the 380,000 barrel-a-day Forcados tanker terminal, a senior industry source said, bringing the impact from recent attacks on oil supply to one fifth of Nigeria's 2.4 million barrels daily.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said the attacks were a response to military air raids on villages in Delta state earlier this week and would be followed by another wave of violence "on a grander scale".
"These hostages are human shields. Subsequent attacks on other installations will be drastic as we have no intentions of taking hostages," the militants said, calling on all oil workers to leave the delta.
The militants said they wanted more local control over the Niger Delta's vast oil wealth and the release of two ethnic Ijaw leaders, including a militia leader who is on trial for treason.
"Expatriates must realise that they have been caught up in a war and the Nigerian government can do nothing to guarantee the security of anyone," they added.
In military-style attacks before dawn on Saturday, militants stormed an offshore barge operated by U.S. oil services company Willbros and abducted nine workers -- three Americans, one Briton, two Thais, two Egyptians and a Filipino.
More
For more information:
http://in.today.reuters.com/News/newsArtic...
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The group, including three Americans, two Thais, two Egyptians, a Briton and a Filipino, were on a pipelaying barge.
Shell's Forcados export terminal was also set on fire, and oil loading there has been suspended.
The attacks come a day after a militant commander told the BBC his group was declaring "total war" on all foreign oil interests in the Delta.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta gave oil companies and their employees until midnight on Friday night to leave the region.
In an e-mail quoted by Reuters news agency after Saturday's attack, the group threatened action "on a grander scale".
"We decided in response to pleas from our kin in these communities, to carry out strikes against oil and gas facilities in Delta state," the group said.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4726680.stm