Mike Oduniyi And Josephin Lohor
26 April 2004
Lagos & Abuja — Death toll rises to 7
FG orders arrest of killers
Stunned by the high rate of fatalities in last Friday's attack by armed youths on oil workers on the Benin River in Delta State, US oil major, ChevronTexaco, said it was suspending plans to resume oil production in the area.
The suspension will lead to further loss of 140,000 barrels per day of Nigeria's crude oil production, which in monetary terms will translate to a daily loss of $4.76 million revenue.
The Federal Government, however, yesterday, directed security operatives to fish out the militant youths responsible for the attack and the killing of oil workers.
Chevron said last night that the death toll in the boat attack has risen to seven.
In a press statement signed by its General Manager, Government and Public Affairs, Mr. Sola Omole, Chevron stated that two of the dead were United States citizens, working for International Business Systems Inc. a contractor company to Chevron.
"Both the American Embassy and the families of the deceased have been notified," the company said.
The remaining casualties were Nigerians including, the captain of the boat attacked by the armed gang, a crew member, both employees of Wilbros Nigeria Limited, and three Naval security personnel, it said.
The company said all the bodies of the dead persons had been recovered.
Chevron said an injured employee and a wounded Naval security personnel were the only survivors of "the unprovoked attack." "Both of them were evacuated to the Company's medical facility in Warri where they received treatment. They remain in stable condition," Chevron stated.
Giving graphic details of the attack, the oil firm said a preliminary information indicated that the attack "was carried out by heavily armed militants, who had attempted to dispossess the Naval security personnel of their weapons. The occupants of the work boat were then attacked with heavy gun fire, injuring some and killing others."
Governor James Ibori of Delta State while condemning the attack, had promised a N10 million reward for anyone with information leading to the arrest of the criminals.
The Chevron work crew had been assessing oil and gas facilities at the company's Dibi and Olero Creek fields as part of preparations to return to these swamp locations that were vacated in March, 2003 at the height of inter-ethnic violence in the Niger Delta.
A Chevron spokesman, Mr. Wole Agunbiade, said the attack was a set-back to plans by the company to resume production in the area.
"We have stopped production from the area before. We were trying to get back when this incident happened," he said.
The inability of Chevron's swamp fields to come back on stream as planned, takes the total loss in Nigeria's oil production to about 200,000 bpd including 60,000 bpd of Shell output currently lost to pipeline vandalisation and theft.
The Federal Government which stated that it received with regret the attack on the oil workers, noted in a statement signed and issued yesterday morning by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Mrs. Oluremi Oyo, that "it has directed the security agencies to keep the peace in the area and arrest the criminals who will face the full wrath of the law".
It also reaffirmed "its commitment to the protection of lives and property all over Nigeria and particularly in the Niger Delta".
The statement further noted that "the Federal Government has received with regret the attack on oil workers in Warri, Delta State.
"The Government, in collaboration with the Delta State Government, is determined not only to find lasting solution to the crisis in the area but to hunt down perpetrators of this recent dastardly crime," it stated.
An emergency session of the Delta State Security Council is billed to hold this morning to review the incident and map out strategies on how to avert a repeat of the bloody weekend. Although criminal elemeent and ethnic militia groups had terrorised the oil fields of the Niger Delta in the past this is the first time a clash between armed bandits and oil workers would result in the death of foreign nationals serving in Nigeria's vast oil and gas fields concentrated in the Niger Delta.
It was the latest in the series of violence rocking the oil producing Niger Delta region in which Nigeria was said to be losing on the average about $10 billion revenue yearly.
The lost revenue is made up of losses from oil production shut in due to attack on workers and production facilities, replacement cost for vandalised oil pipelines and cost of providing security in the region.
The weekend attack also came barely a week after militant youths seized a Shell oil platform leading to loss of about 5,000 bpd of crude production. They were dislodged two days later by troops.
At the height of the Warri crisis in early 2003, Nigeria lost on the average 800,000 bpd of crude production. It dropped to 386,000 bpd level by mid last year, with some 13 flowstations shut.
Only two weeks ago, the Federal Government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and an NGO, staged a workshop for youths in the Niger Delta.
The workshop declared open by President Olusegun Obasanjo, was aimed at bringing the restive youths in the area to dialogue and stem the tide of violence.
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