Delta showdown: Nigeria Army arrests ‘Avengers’ oil militants

The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), the group behind the string of attacks that have halted major operations in the oil-rich Niger Delta, have issued a threat to all oil companies in the region to shut down and leave or face stepped up attacks.
The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), the group behind the string of attacks that have halted major operations in the oil-rich Niger Delta, have issued a threat to all oil companies in the region to shut down and leave or face stepped up attacks.

The Nigerian army has arrested several suspected members of a militant group called the “Niger Delta Avengers” (NDA), thought to be behind recent attacks on oil pipelines in the south.

The country’s oil production has been severely disrupted by the attacks. US oil giant Chevron shut down an offshore platform this month after an attack claimed by the Avengers group. Many militants joined an amnesty programme in 2009 after an insurgency in the oil-rich delta region.

Nigeria has long been Africa’s largest oil producer, but its economy is currently facing difficulties due to the recent drop in global oil prices and its output is now behind that of Angola.

Most of Nigeria’s oil wealth comes from the Niger Delta, an area which remains poor and underdeveloped. Previous insurgent groups said they were fighting so local people could benefit more from their region’s natural resources. Oil spills have also resulted in environmental devastation over the years.

 

There are still very few independently confirmed details about the group, which announced its formation three months ago.

On its website, it says it is fighting for an independent state on behalf of the people of the Niger Delta and is prepared to “cripple Nigeria’s economy” in pursuit of its aims.

It mocks President Muhammadu Buhari for never having visited the “creeks of the Niger Delta” and criticises him for the continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu, the leading member of a group which backs the creation of a breakaway state of Biafra in the south-east.

It boasts about its members being “young, educated, well travelled…and educated in east Europe”.

Its tactic of attacking oil facilities in the region, announced in February, has caused havoc in the sector, with production levels in the country now reported to have fallen to their lowest for more than two decades.

One attack on an underwater Shell pipeline in February showed a high level of technical expertise, forcing the shutdown of a terminal which normally produces 250,000 barrels of oil a day.

Many locals suspect that some former oil militants excluded from the amnesty programme could be behind the group.

But speculation is rife and everyone has their own theory about who is to blame.

Whatever the case, the group’s growing stature is a major headache for President Buhari, whose government is already grappling with Boko Haram’s insurgency in the north-east.

 

The amnesty programme, which provides tens of thousands of former oil militants with a monthly stipend from the government, stemmed the level of violence in the region after its introduction in 2009.

But in the latest budget, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari reduced fundingfor the programme by 70%, and has spoken of phasing it out entirely by 2018. Critics accuse Mr Buhari, a Muslim northerner, of unfairly targeting communities in the southern, mainly Christian oil-producing regions, as part of his anti-corruption drive. Mr Buhari’s predecessor Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian, comes from the Niger Delta region.

Witnesses say an explosion has closed a second Chevron facility in Nigeria

Nigeria's oil production already had reached a 20-year low of less than 1.6 million barrels a day from a projected 2.2 million, because of attacks on a Chevron platform last week and on a pipeline that forced Shell to declare force majeure on Bonny Light crude on Wednesday.
Nigeria’s oil production already had reached a 20-year low of less than 1.6 million barrels a day from a projected 2.2 million, because of attacks on a Chevron platform last week and on a pipeline that forced Shell to declare force majeure on Bonny Light crude on Wednesday.

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — An explosion closed a second Chevron facility in Nigeria, witnesses said Friday, as renewed attacks by militants further cut production in Africa’s biggest petroleum producer.

Adding to Nigeria’s economic woes, Exxon Mobil on Friday said some production of Qua Iboe crude — the West African nation’s largest crude grade — has halted because a drilling rig damaged a pipeline. The company declared force majeure, protecting it from contractual export obligations.

Nigeria’s oil production already had reached a 20-year low of less than 1.6 million barrels a day from a projected 2.2 million, because of attacks on a Chevron platform last week and on a pipeline that forced Shell to declare force majeure on Bonny Light crude on Wednesday. The same day, Shell began evacuating workers from its offshore Bonga oilfield following a militant threat, though production there is continuing.

Shell’s Forcados export terminal has been shut since a February bombing.

Villagers said militants attacked a Chevron well on Marakaba pipeline on Thursday. They requested anonymity for fear of repercussions amid a massive deployment of troops that has led more than 10,000 people to flee the fallout. Chevron did not respond to requests for comment.

A new group, the Niger Delta Avengers, has claimed most attacks. They want natives of the oil-producing southern Niger Delta to get a bigger share of oil wealth and are angry about cuts to an amnesty program that paid militants to guard the installations they once attacked.

There are suggestions the violence is being fueled by some Christian politicians in the oil-producing south opposed to President Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Muslim. Eurasia Group risk assessment said the sophistication of attacks points to such a scenario and would indicate the Avenger group “poses a greater threat than its small numbers and scant grassroots support would indicate.”

The Nigerian production cuts have helped boost oil prices — to nearly $50 a barrel from under $30 a barrel in January — according to the International Energy Agency.

See why Nigeria is no longer Africa’s top oil producer

Nigeria's oil pipelines are under attack. (Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye)
Nigeria’s oil pipelines are under attack. (Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye)

Following attacks on oil installations and facilities in the country, Nigeria’s oil production output has fallen to 20-year lows and slipped behind Angola as the continent’s top oil producer. The attacks are the result of a resurgent militancy in Nigeria’s oil rich Niger-Delta region where a new group, called the Niger Delta Avengers, have taken up arms, attacking pipelines and major installations.

In February, Royal Dutch Shell stopped oil shipments after an attack on a key pipeline which supplies a terminal with an export output of about 250,000 barrels a day. Shell has also been forced to evacuate a major oil field after militants issued threats of an attack. Another oil company, Chevron, shut down a facility costing the country around 90,000 barrels daily after it was “breached by unknown persons”. The attacks have also hit pipelines supplying local refineries and electricity gas lines in the country.
 The Niger Delta Avengers group says its goal is to “cripple the Nigeria economy” unless the government accedes to its numerous demands one of which is the immediate clean up of Ogoniland. Another is the continuation of an amnesty programme for militants in the region. In response, Nigeria’s president Buhari has ordered the military to “crush” the group.
The disruption to Nigeria’s production output compounds the country’s woes amid low oil prices. The resource accounts for 70% of Nigeria’s earnings and at a time when the country is trying to fund a record budget deficit, timing could not be worse. Within its shores, Nigeria is still dealing with a fuel shortage crisis, triggered by the government’s insistence on avoiding a devaluation of its currency despite a steep drop against the dollar.
While the state oil company has raised its importation quota to assuage the shortage, the inability of independent importers to access foreign exchange at bank rates—thus making a profit selling at official government prices—has meant the country’s demand can simply not be met. To solve the problem, on Tuesday (May 10), the government announced a total removal of subsidies on petrol, saying marketers are “free to import” petrol subject to existing quality specifications but also set the new price of fuel at N145 ($0.73)—a 68% increase.
 The move is reminiscent of a similar decision in 2012 which led to nationwide protests led by the labour union and a total shutdown of the economy. It is too early to tell if the price increase will spark similar reactions from Nigerians but if it, as the government hopes, leads to “increased supply and availability” of the petrol across the country, there will be much less for Nigerians to be angry about.

Report: Shell evacuates Nigerian facility

Nigerian militants wreaked havoc on the country's oil sector in the 2000s (AFP Photo/Pius Utomi Ekpei)
Nigerian militants wreaked havoc on the country’s oil sector in the 2000s (AFP Photo/Pius Utomi Ekpei)

ABUJA, Nigeria, May 9 (UPI) — Nigerian media reported Monday a group calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers forced the evacuation of facilities in the area operated by Royal Dutch Shell.

Nigerian newspaper Vanguard reported subsidiary Shell Petroleum Development Corp. evacuated around 100 staff from an oil facility that was producing around 90,000 barrels of oil per day. The newspaper reported that a skeleton crew was left behind, though operations at the Shell facility were suspended.

Vanguard reported the militant group calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers forced the Shell evacuation. The group last week took credit for knocking pipelines controlled by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. and Chevron offline. The group said the attacks came after issuing an ultimatum to the Nigerian government about developments in the Niger Delta.

The Nigerian newspaper quoted a source close to the militant group as saying it was determined in its operations against state interests.

“They will cripple oil and gas supply to the country as long as government remains recalcitrant to their demands,” the source said.

There was no official statement from either the Niger Delta Avengers or Shell on the evacuations.

The Niger Delta Avengers in February launched a campaign it called Operation Red Economy. The purpose, it said, was to start a revolution aimed at wrestling the country away from the hands of the “wicked” administration of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.

Advocacy group Global Witness in March said Shell and its partners in Nigeria may have exposed shareholders to a high level of risk in a corrupt system. The advocacy group said oil production license 245 was sold in the late 1990s for $20 million to a company “secretly owned” by then Nigerian Oil Minister Dan Etete and later sold to Shell and Italian energy company Eni for $1.1 billion.

In March, Nigerian Petroleum Minister and Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. Emmanuel Kachikwu said the state oil company would be split up into dozens of distinct entities in an effort to address corruption and revenue losses.

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