Chevron’s
operations yesterday came under threat after another attack on its facility at
the 18-inch Abiteye line in Warri South-West council area of Delta State.
Members
of a militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), destroyed a major crude
oil facility, grounding Chevron’s swamp operations in the state.
The
NDA, in a tweet, claimed responsibility for the attack, which is bound to
alter oil production and, in effect, Nigeria’s revenue. The group tweeted: “We
warned Chevron, but they didn’t listen. @NDAvengers just blew up the Escravos
tank farm main electricity feed pipeline.”
The
NDA explained that the oil facilities were sabotaged following attempts by
Chevron to repair the main Escravos crude oil pipeline it blew up earlier.
Reuters
quoted sources as saying that the company’s onshore operations in the Niger
Delta had been shut down following the attack, which involved the main
electricity line leading to its Escravos terminal.
“It
is a crude line, which means all activities in Chevron are grounded,” the
source told Reuters.
After
the initial attack, the group had warned against moves to repair the facility
until their demands were fully met.
The
group’s spokesperson, Mudoch Agbinibo, had earlier this month warned the
government of further attacks if their demands were not met.
Last
week, Chevron’s Makaraba crude oil line was attacked on the offshore Okan
manifold.
The
attack followed previous ones on the company’s facilities at Abiteye, Utunana
and Makaraba platforms in Warri South-West area of Delta State, resulting in
the loss of over 40,000 barrels of oil per day.
Agip
pipilines have repeatedly been vandalised in Bayelsa and Delta states recenlty.
A
community source, who had had an interaction with officials of the company,
confirmed that the attack had grounded Chevron’s swamp activities.
The
source said stakeholders from the state had been working on possible solutions
to the situation, which has adversely affected the national economy, adding
that those behind the attacks had been difficult to trail or identify.
“Chevron
Abiteye 18-inch line, a crude oil line, was once again attacked last night. The
Abiteye Escravos is the main line. I spoke with the Chevron superintendent, who
confirmed it and that the entire operation of Chevron in the swamp has been
totally shut down by the attack. That was the only remaining route before, but
with this last attack, all Chevron’s operation is down, totally brought to
zero.
“We
are trying to now proffer a solution; what can we do, in spite of the advocacy
committee’s visit and all that? The issue is that the people are not coming out
like in the last agitation, where you knew where it was coming from, you could
trace it to Camp 5, you could identify some leaders from the camps.
“In
this one, you can’t identify anyone, they are using guerrilla tactics; they are
no longer using either 200 or 75 horsepower speedboats, they now use smaller
speedboats. They are now disguised in a different manner; now you can only see
like two to three people, you’ll just think probably they are going somewhere,
but they are rather causing problems and the funny thing is that they don’t
move in the day time; they only move in the night,” he said.
When
reached for confirmation and comment, Chevron’s General Manager )Policies,
Government and Public Affairs) Deji Haastrup simply said: “ I am unable to
comment at this time.”
Delta
State Deputy Governor Kingsley Otuaro, at a news conference in Warri earlier in
the week, said state government’s advocacy efforts had been helpful, adding
that attacks on facilities could have been more than being already experienced.
“We
can safely say, from the intelligence we have, that if this committee had not
been put in place, we would have possibly had a hundred of such one – off
attacks that you have seen so far. That would have been a great setback to the
nation’s economy and, of course, by extension, the state. The committee is
doing a great work,” Otuaro said.
Tags
Society