Asari-Dokubo regains freedom

Amnesty may lapse after 60 days

From Madu Onuorah, Terhemba Daka (Abuja), Kelvin Ebiri (Port Harcourt), Willie Etim (Yenagoa), Taiwo Hassan and Blessing Eghagha (Lagos)

NOW the chicken has come to roost. The effects of the militancy in the Niger Delta and the Federal Government's clampdown on them have shaken the foundation of the oil and gas industry.


Yesterday, the government admitted that it had no more crude for its refineries to process for local consumption.

Consequently, the Warri and Port Harcourt refineries have been shut. The Kaduna Refinery, though functioning, has no crude to process because the Warri plant, which feeds it is shut due to a damage to major pipelines. The only stock, which was reserved, will be exhausted in the next 15 days, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said yesterday.

The corporation's Group Managing Director (GMD), Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo, who painted the pathetic picture of the industry, said in the next 15 days, it will run out of crude for domestic consumption.

The corporation attributed the development to the crisis in the Niger Delta, which has escalated since the government scaled up a military offensive against the militants in the region.

In retaliation, the militants have intensified their sabotage of the activities of oil firms in the zone. In the last three weeks, the militants have struck four times, destroying facilities belonging to Shell, Chevron and Agip, which are joint venture partners with the government.

http://odili.net/news/source/2009/jun/25/38.html

Now na Morning!

It remains to be seen whether the sudden release of all captured Niger Delta warlords by the Nigerian government will achieve its intended purpose of pacifying those myriad oil warriors before they foreclose Nigeria's means of transporting crude oil designated for export, as they have now done to the domestic consumption crude oil transport grid, for the first time EVER.

Extrapolating to conjure up a worst case scenario, a total demolition of ALL crude oil pipelines in the Niger Delta, which paralyzes both Nigeria's PRIMARY generator of hard currency - exported crude oil, while also rupturing the crude oil arteries that sustain the production of locally refined petrochemical derivatives, would have the potential of inducing a total breakdown of civil order in short order in ANY country, talk less of Nigeria where a certain degree of anarchy is considered "normal".

Narrow indeed would be the time window during which Nigeria's looter-ravaged foreign reserves could cover the cost of importing refined fuel for the country's 200 million strong population, and with no further income OR fuel obtainable from the Niger Delta golden goose, water would quickly become a rare commodity nationwide, in a land where gasoline and diesel powered generators stand in for an absent mains electricity grid system.  Barring any 11th hour miracles, the walking dead industries that once propped up the Nigerian economy would implode on schedule, ultimately fostering the premature birth of a Somalia-style nation comprising heavily armed clans who exchange light arms fire amid the smoldering ruins of a once great African nation.

Where the refineries even functioning before?

Where the refineries even functioning before?

As far as i am concerned,the three refineries have remained comatose for years.Whether they run out of crude or not will not determine the price of imported crude.
Me thinks NNPC just wants to show us that they are relevant.We all know they AREN'T!!

I can see fear gripping some people and they are yarning rubbish here. Days of surviving only on groundnut and cocoa earnings are near.

Our elders say it is an abomination to harvest someone elses crop. Nigerian leaders take note