Emma Amaize
GBARAMATU—Youth Council in Delta State yesterday expressed concern that the economy of the Nigerian state would be crippled in the next few weeks as a result of the damage of the facilities of oil companies in the Niger Delta by militants.

Already, the production capacity of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in Delta State has fallen to 10,000 barrels per day from the initial 100,000 bpd.


Militants are also targeting to blow up Forcados Export Terminal which, if successful, would bring production to zero.
Delta State government is seriously affected by the offensive, as it is already clear that its allocations will drop and even the Delta State Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) may also face cash crunch.

The council in a communiqué issued at the end of a meeting in Warri, signed by its president, Engr. Kennedy Brake, and two others, the council blamed the Joint Task Force (JTF) for the sad turn of events, saying it gave the Federal Government a false impression that soldiers would be able to protect the facilities.

According to the council, “on Monday, July 7, our monitoring team returned from the creeks of Escravos and beyond and confirmed that in the next few weeks, the Nigerian state will not have a tin of crude oil to export or refine in the country because all the major oil facilities in the country have been crippled .

“The Otunana trunk lines, pipelines, Makaraba pipelines, jackets, well-heads, Abitieye trun klines , pipelines, jackets, Dibi and Olero trunk lines, pipelines, wellheads, and even the Okan deep sea trunk line and pipelines have been sabotaged to the last core.

“The same applies to Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), all its trunk lines and pipelines have been sabotaged, leaving the oil operators with forced measures to evacuate from the Niger-Delta . That is why we deemed it necessary to call on the international communities once more to note and intervene.

“All these are happening in the presence of the task force which boast on paper every day that they are equal to the task; we will fight to finish; we engaged them in gun battle; we will soon fish them out. If we may ask? Where was the task force who desecrated our homes in Gbaramatu kingdom when all the facilities were destroyed?

“Right now, Chevron cannot operate anymore because the militants have crippled all their facilities. Chevron is dying in silence because they [Chevron) think bringing armed troops to secure their facility is the best option, but now the militants have proven them wrong.

“The true owners of the area are the best and qualified people to secure the oil facilities in the region rather than outsiders.”

For the economy not to totally collapse, the youths called on President Umaru Yar’Adua to withdraw the JTF from the Niger Delta and implement the report of the Niger-Delta Technical Committee, headed by Mr. Ledum Mitee.

Italian energy group Eni SpA which owns Agip in Nigeria yesterday declared a force majeure on some of its crude exports from Nigeria, following an act of sabotage on a pipeline located north of the Brass River field earlier in the week.
This is just as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, yesterday destroyed for the umpteenth time in recent weeks an oil installation belonging to US oil giant Chevron.
The attack on Agip’s pipeline on Tuesday resulted in oil production losses equivalent to 24,000 barrels per day, translating to about 4,800 barrels per day of Eni’s equity in Agip, the company confirmed.
MEND recently shifted its offensive against oil installations located outside Delta State and has in the last four weeks claimed responsibility for attacks on oil facilities including the Afremo oil field.
Last week, the Italian oil giant was said to have shut in production of around 33,000 barrels of oil and two million cubic metres of gas per day following the Bayelsa attack.
In its continuing offensive against oil installations, MEND yesterday destroyed the recently repaired Chevron pipeline linking Alero Creek through Abiteye to the Escravos export terminal in Delta State.
The attack which took place last night at 2000hrs was allegedly carried out by MEND fighters who waited till the completion of repair work on the pipeline before blowing it up for the second time in weeks.
MEND said it will only stop attacks after its leader, Henry Okah who has unconditionally accepted the offer of amnesty from the government, is released from detention and positive discussions are held.
The group disclosed that the attacks may even go on side by side the negotiations.
In a statement, MEND’s spokesman, Gbomo Jomo, said they were miffed by the fact that the federal government had shown so much eagerness to resume oil exports inspite of the sufferings of the people who were displaced by the bombings of the Joint Task Force last May.
They said they waited until the work which was done with over 200 soldiers on guard duty was completed before moving in to destroy the pipeline.
MEND expressed gratitude to soldiers guarding the facility for not challenging them while they carried out the action.
Jomo said that for trying to resume oil related activities without caring to resettle the displaced in Delta State, they will while talks on amnesty are ongoing, continue the destruction of oil facilities.
Prior to the renewed attacks on oil facilities in the region, Nigeria was said to have recorded a shut in of over one million barrel per day, bringing the country’s output to only a little over 1 million barrels per day.
Recent statistics released by the Department of Petroleum Resources about a fortnight ago, showed that production deferment due to the crisis in the oil-rich region was over 1 million barrels per day.
Statistics indicated that both reserves and daily output are on the decline due to restiveness in the Niger Delta, raising fears that the crisis may deter the country from achieving its set targets of 4 million barrels per day and reserves of 40 billion barrels by 2010.

nex:

Gbaramatu Youths will collapse in a few weeks - Nigerian Economists.

World economy has completely melted down months ago, is it today Nigerian economy will collapse? Then what has the economy been doing in the past 2 decades? So they felt that the economy has been robust since and it may now collapse in a few weeks. I will love to see that. Economy wey don die since and una dey inside, una no know, na now una dey predict say e wan collapse because hand touch una.

Trained graduate of medicine is working in a Commercial Bank and nobody realised that the whole country has collapsed a long time ago. For over 2 decades now, Nigeria has been surviving on 200,000 barrels per day. Yes. I didn't say 2 million. 200,000 barrels per day! All the extra money from the remaining 1.8 million barrels per day was what went into Ghana must go sacks, brown envelopes (or in our case, cartons), and Peugeot 504 boots. That extra money was what built VGC castles, bought private jets and Hilltop Villas. Acquired live airtime for celebrations and sponsored political rallies. That was the 1.8 million barrels O!

So generally, I care less if 30,000 barrels per day is made to flow into the creeks by MEND, as long as they don't call on any one else to clean up the mess or shout out pollution against the multinationals.

Now we'll manage money the way it should be. Abi did you actually believe that Nigeria was really gaining about $73 billion annually in 2007 from crude oil alone? How come to sign budget of N3 trillion ($24 billion) dey make dem sweat?

At least if we know that we have actually just $3.5 billion annually coming from only 200,000 barrels per day, the masses will bite anyone who tries to even look at that money too lustfully.

To my brothers in MEND, please carry on and as the 13% extra winds down to nothing in total, let's see who will suffer.

Lagosians, pay you taxes and earn those non-oil dollars. Since some have printed Passport others will soon require Visa.