From: "Stasi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 05:59:30 +0100 To: "Peoples War" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Peoples War] Nigeria: Saboteurs Cripple Oil Plant - The Times MONDAY OCTOBER 01 2001 http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2001340528,00.html Saboteurs cripple Nigerian oil plant ======================== BY RAY KENNEDY IN JOHANNESBURG AND DANIEL WALLIS ARMED youths who seized control of an oil station in southern Nigeria caused a huge explosion that could halt production for up to 18 months. The owner, Royal Dutch/Shell, said that the sabotage could cost �15 million. After the attack on the Olomoro flow station, a build-up of pressure in the tanks erupted, spewing crude oil over hundreds of yards of woodland. The raid appeared to have been linked to demands for contracts for local people. A Shell statement said: "Although the attackers did not make any formal demands, some of them are reported to have asked why the company was doing the work a contractor should be doing." Local reports said that police arrested about 40 youths in the surrounding area after the attack last Thursday. Frank Efeduma, a Shell official in the oil-producing town of Warri, 35 miles southwest of Oloromo, said: "It will be shut down for the next 18 months and it will cost $25 million (�15.8 million) to bring it back on stream. If you calculate what Shell and the nation will lose, it will be enormous. This was a criminal act." Olomoro and the Owhe gas-to-liquids facility that depends on it produce 40,000 barrels of crude oil a day. Oil is the mainstay of Nigeria's economy and the Anglo-Dutch company produces nearly half of the country's daily crude oil output of two million barrels a day. However, its facilities have suffered many attacks by gangs of militants. The vast majority of Nigerians have missed any benefits from its vast oil wealth, particularly during the years of rule by military dictatorships. The oil industry has been accused of causing widespread pollution and environmental damage. The consequences of the raid on the Olomoro flow station will probably be among the most serious so far. Oil workers have been kidnapped frequently by militants to be used as bargaining chips for jobs, contracts or amenities for their communities. Shell's role in Nigeria has been the subject of continuing controversy. Over the years, a series of leaks and fires at oil installations owned by Shell and other oil companies have devastated communities, mainly in the southeast of the country. The companies say that they clean up spills and pay compensation, but often the affected areas are so isolated that it can take days before the companies even know about a leak or an explosion. In May Donald Boham, a Shell spokesman, said that up to 14 of its abandoned Nigerian oil wells could explode without warning. In October 1998 more than 500 people were killed by a fire from a ruptured pipeline in the southern province of Ogoniland. Local newspapers said that many of those killed had been trying to collect the leaking fuel with cups, funnels and petrol cans. Shell was forced to stop production in Ogoniland in 1993 after a campaign by the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, who accused the company of widespread pollution. Shell has said that its oil facilities in Ogoniland are regularly subjected to sabotage, but Ogoni activists have claimed to be shocked by such suggestions. Mr Saro-Wiwa and eight other human rights activists were executed by the military Government of Sani Abacha in 1995, leading to Nigeria's expulsion from the Commonwealth until May 1999. Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd. This service is provided on Times Newspapers' standard terms and conditions. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material from The Times, visit the Syndication website. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
