The latest attack meant that the 2016 budget had been hit by a deficit of $35 million daily as the total attacks on oil facilities by the militants sank the country’s production by over 700, 000 barrels per day. Dependable source said a lot of people were gripped with fear, following the degree of the explosions that sent the villagers hiding in bush.
It was also gathered that the damaged pipelines were operated by the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) and Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), both subsidiaries of the NNPC. However, investigations revealed that the attacks occurred near a military checkpoint, while an industry source described the attacks as devastating and heinous.
The source said the affected lines were strategic to the country’s oil production saying the nation’s oil production would greatly deplete due to Thursday night’s attacks. Saturday Telegraph gathered that the attack further implied that Nigeria, which has a projection in the 2016 budget to produce 2.2 million barrels everyday during the 2016 budgetary year had for days been left with daily production of less than 1.4 million barrels, which meant that the output of the hitherto biggest producer in Africa further has sunk. Confirming the attack, spokesman for the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Mr. Eric Omare, said: “There were two simultaneous attacks on (state oil firm) PPMC and NNPC pipelines.”
The confirmation by Omare, who is an aide to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, came as the militant group tweeted later that they had blown up a gas and crude pipeline near the town of Warri that was protected by soldiers and operated by the NNPC. “At 11:45pm on Thursday @NDAvengers blew up other #NNPC Gas and Crude trunkline close to Warri,” the group said on its Twitter feed.
The Avengers had rejected a meeting recently convened in Abuja by the Federal Government, warning of its readiness to carry out an attack that will “shock the whole world.” The group in its tweet yesterday said: “The Niger Delta stakeholder’s meeting is an insult to the people of Niger Delta. What we need is a Sovereign State and not pipeline contracts.
To the Indigenous Oil Companies (IOC) and Nigeria military, watch out something big is about to happen and it will shock the whole world.” The militant group had claimed on the same platform an attack on Chevron’s main power feed in the Delta, which shut down the United States firm’s onshore operations, according to a company source.
“We warned Chevron, but they didn’t listen. NDA just blew up the Escravos tank farm main electricity feed pipeline,” it said further. Similarly, the Avengers, which had given oil firms until end of the month to leave, said they want independence for the Delta and have intensified attacks in recent weeks, pushing oil output to its lowest in more than 20 years and compounding Nigeria’s economic problems.
The militants said the oil facilities were sabotaged following attempts by Chevron to carry out repairs of main Escravos crude oil pipeline it blew up earlier. A spokesperson for the group, Mudoch Agbinibo, had earlier this month warned the Nigerian government of further attacks if their demands were not met.
It would be recalled that the group had launched many attacks on oil and gas infrastructure since February 2016, demanding a sovereign nation of the Niger Delta people. However, when Saturday Telegraph sought the opinion of prominent Ijaw leaders on the likely implication of the attacks, a dependable source who declined to comment on the attacks, hinted that an emergency meeting of all stakeholders had been fixed for today.
The source stated that the reason for the meeting was hinged on the fact that the stakeholders were expected to review the latest uprising in the oil-rich Niger Delta with a view to reviewing some of the demands of the militant group. The source also added that the fallout of the meeting was expected to be the focal point of what would be the position of the stakeholders at the end of the meeting.
“We are holding a stakeholders meeting tomorrow (today), where we are going to take a more proactive decision that will look at the issues on ground holistically,” the source said. The country is now producing less than Angola and well below the 2.2 million bpd assumed in the budget.
Based on a benchmark of $38 per barrel, the expected surplus of $12 per barrel due to $50 pb new price of crude could not be felt as a result of the slide in production.
Newtelegraph
0 comments:
Post a Comment