Nigerian militants attacked a Royal Dutch Shell-operated oil installation yesterday in a third day of heavy fighting with security forces in the Niger Delta region.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) declared an “oil war” on Sunday and warned all oil workers to evacuate the delta immediately, threatening to further disrupt production in the world’s eighth largest oil exporter.
“MEND reiterates its previous warnings to all oil workers in the entire Niger Delta region to evacuate from oil facilities and halt production with immediate effect or they will have themselves to blame,” the group said in an e-mailed statement.
“All international oil and gas loading vessels entering the region are warned to drop anchor in the high sea or divert elsewhere until further notice. Failure to comply is taking a foolhardy risk of attack and destruction of the vessel,” it said.
The militants attacked a Shell flow station yesterday. The fighting has not yet affected the OPEC member’s oil production because some of the facilities attacked seem to have already been shut down by previous assaults, security sources said.
Oil traded at a six-month low below US$100 a barrel yesterday.
Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, spokesman for the military task force in Rivers state, said militants in about 10 speedboats attacked the flow station at Alakiri in Rivers State.
“The attack lasted over an hour. Dynamite and bombs were massively detonated by the miscreants,” Musa said. “The situation is being closely monitored and is under control.”
Musa said militants incurred heavy losses in the last three days and no soldiers were killed. He would not specify the number of casualties.
Private security contractors working in the oil industry, which often helps evacuate wounded military personnel, said at least three soldiers were injured and two civilians killed in the crossfire.
MEND, whose campaign of violence has cut a fifth of the country’s oil output, said at least 22 soldiers and seven others had been killed since Saturday.
Two security sources in the oil industry, who did not want to be named, said more than 100 people may have been killed in the fighting, which involved the Army, Navy and Air Force.
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