Nigerian Rebels Claim Attack on Chevron Oil Facility (Update4) - Bloomberg.com

Nigerian Rebels Claim Attack on Chevron Oil Facility (Update4) - Bloomberg.com



June 15 (Bloomberg) -- Nigerian rebels said they destroyed Chevron Corp.’s Abiteye oil-pumping station in the Niger River delta, claiming a third attack on the U.S. company’s facilities in the past three days.



The assault took place at about 2 a.m. local time today and “resulted in a massive fire outbreak that is consuming the entire facility,” Jomo Gbomo, spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said today in an e-mailed statement. MEND aims to destroy all oil structures in the region, home to Africa’s biggest oil industry, Gbomo said.

Chevron, which in late May halted operations in the swamps of the western delta, where Abiteye is located, is “not speculating on any comment while investigations are being undertaken,” Scott Walker, a company spokesman in Houston, said today in an e-mail. Chevron said May 25 it had cut output by about 100,000 barrels a day after an attack on a trunk line.

An attempt to attack the Abiteye station was repelled by troops on guard, Colonel Rabe Abubakar, a spokesman for the military task force in charge of oil-region security, said today in an e-mailed statement. “The suspected militants came in their dozens to carry out the nefarious acts and this led to heavy exchange of gunfire,” he said.

Violence Intensifies

Fighting in the delta, which produces almost all Nigeria’s oil, has intensified since the military started an offensive last month against armed groups. Militant attacks have cut the country’s crude output by more than 20 percent since 2006. Nigeria is Africa’s top oil producer and the fifth-biggest source of U.S. oil imports.

MEND, which is demanding a greater share of the region’s oil wealth for local communities, also claimed responsibility for assaults on Chevron’s Makaraba and Utonana oil-pumping stations in the past three days.

President Umaru Yar’Adua said the military offensive is aimed at ridding the Niger Delta of criminals. Armed groups in the region frequently hijack vessels and kidnap oil workers.

MEND said it plans to escalate the fighting by carrying out attacks in the country’s mainly Muslim north. It called on FIFA, the world governing body for major soccer tournaments, to reconsider a plan to hold the Under-17 World Cup in Nigeria, saying the safety of players and spectators can’t be guaranteed.

The military’s Abubakar said its security forces are capable of securing oil installations, keeping people safe and protecting property.

The government has guaranteed security, FIFA’s top concern, said Emeka Odipko, spokesman for the local committee organizing the tournament in October. He dismissed the militants’ threat in a phone interview from the southeastern city of Enugu.

Chevron owns a 40 percent stake in a venture it operates with state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. The San Ramon, California-based producer pumped a daily average of 376,000 barrels of crude, 181 million cubic feet of gas and 16,000 barrels of liquefied petroleum gas last year in Nigeria, according to a company fact sheet.