allAfrica.com * Militants Attack Shell's Bonga Field This Day (Lagos) NEWS 20 June 2008 Posted to the web 20 June 2008 Lagos Nigeria's biggest offshore facility, Royal Dutch Shell's Bonga field, was shut down yesterday following an attack on the oil field by militants. Offshore facilities are hitherto thought to be safe from militant attacks. Located 120 kilometres (75 miles) offshore, Bonga oil field has a daily production capacity of 200,000 barrels of oil and 150 million standard cubic feet of gas. The militants, numbering about 20, who were said to have operated in three speedboats, also kidnapped a United States citizen, Captain Jack Stone, a staff of Tidex, an offshore company. Stone was, however, released at about 5 pm yesterday unconditionally. The latest attack, which took place in the early hours, resulted in the shut in of about 200,000 barrels per day (bpd), which is about 10 per cent of Nigeria's current daily production of about 2 million bpd. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened more attacks. The group warned all the oil majors operating in the country to evacuate their expatriate staff from the oil fields, until the issues in the region are addressed. A spokesman of Shell Development Company of Nigeria, Mr. Precious Okolobo, confirmed that production from the Bonga field had stopped following the incident. Okolobo who said Shell was carrying out a detailed inspection of the Bonga Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) and other key installations in order to have a clearer picture of what really happened, said he could not say when production would resume. He said: "Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company's (SNEPCo's) Bonga field was attacked this morning (yesterday morning) by unknown gunmen. We can account for all personnel in Bonga field, and have no report about people being taken hostage from our operations. Three people who were rough handled have been treated for light injuries. "Production from Bonga field has stopped. We are carrying out detailed inspection of the Bonga FPSO and other key installations to ascertain what really happened. It is too early to say when production will resume. SNEPCo is doing everything possible to ensure the safety of personnel on board, and our thoughts are with staff and contractors on what must have been a traumatic experience." However, MEND said: "The location of yesterday's attack was deliberately chosen to remove any notion that offshore oil exploration is far from our reach." According to a statement sent online to THISDAY from the official site of MEND, spokesman of the group, Gbomo Jomo, boasted that the next attack would "cripple the facility on a final note," adding that MEND would carry out attack on any oil facility no matter where it is located. He said the group had aimed at blowing the control room of the facility but later decided not to detonate its explosives because it did not want loss of human lives. The dreaded militia group warned that all expatriate staff working on the facility and within Niger Delta should be evacuated to avoid casualties, saying it had decided to prove to "the Federal Government that it was not happy with the present situation in the region." Jomo said though the group seized the American in the early hours of yesterday, it would release him soon so that those who had been frisking the Federal Government in the guise of releasing hostages would not make easy money with it. The Ijaw Monitoring Group (IMG) described the attack on Bonga Oil Platform as the handiwork of Ijaw god of war (Egbesu). In a statement made available to THISDAY, IMG National Co-ordinator, Comrade Joseph Evah, said the attack had been long overdue, given what he described as "the senseless neglect and development of the people of the Niger Delta. Nigeria's production capacity prior to 2006 stood at about 2.7 million bpd but has been reduced by a quarter owing to series of attacks on oil facilities in the oil-rich region by armed militants. Shell's Nigerian operations have suffered a lot of setbacks owing to series of attacks on its facilities by Niger Delta militants. Only last week, the Managing Director of SPDC, Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, said the company currently had as much as 400,000 barrels of crude oil shut in as a result of militant attacks on its facilities. "Militants attacks as recent as last month and as old as February 2006 have halted about half the venture's production", the Bloomberg report said. The Royal Dutch company had also stated that it would not be able to honour June and July contracts from its Bonny terminal after a militant group following the attack on its key crude supply pipelines in April. Shell had already declared a force majeure for April and May deliveries following the attack, which was also carried out by MEND. Production started at Bonga field in November 2005 and by May 2007, about 100 million barrels of oil had already been exported from the field. The facility had been considered out of the reach of the armed militants due to its location offshore. The field's facilities include one of the world's largest FPSO vessels and deepwater sub sea infrastructure. Shell has a 55 per cent interest in the field, US giant Exxon Mobil 20 percent, while Agip and France's Total has 12.5 per cent each. Meanwhile, the activities of militants in the Niger Delta cost the nation about $84 million in lost oil revenue daily. Minister of State for Finance Remi Babalola who disclosed this to State House Correspondents yesterday said that with a forced production cut as a result of militant activities in the Niger Delta, the country's production capacity dropped to 1.8 million from 2.4 million. He said the consequence of this was that the country's expected revenue reduced from $336 million daily to the present earning of $252 million at the rate of $140 per barrel. He, however, assured of Federal Government's commitment to judiciously utilise whatever is garnered as revenue. And following the shut in the Bonga Oil field Facility by Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Limited and the spate of attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta, the House of Representatives has summoned the Minister of State for Petroleum Odein Ajumogobia, the Minister of Defence Yayale Ahmed and National Security Adviser General Sarki Murkthar (rtd) to appear before its Petroleum Resources Committee (Upstream). The House also invited the Chief of Defence Staff, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC as well as the Managing Directors of Shell, Chevron, Total Exxon Mobil, Addax, Agip to appear before the committee on Monday, June 23 by 10 am. Chairman of the committee, Hon. Tam Brisibe, said the invitation had become necessary against the background that "this facility produces 200,000 bpd - approximately 10 percent of our National daily production." By Chika Amanze-Nwachuku, Ndubisi Ugah in Lagos, Stanley Nkwazema, Juliana Taiwo in Abuja, Ahamefula Ogbu in Port Harcourt and Segun James in Yenagoa --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 2008 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quantcast