ASAGBA OKWAN ASARAMA, Nigeria — Oil workers were on their way to extinguish a huge pipeline blaze in remote southern Nigeria on Wednesday, caused by a suspected dynamite attack that killed at least eight people.
Royal Dutch Shell, which operates the pipeline in the Niger Delta that was attacked on Tuesday by unknown gunmen, said output had been cut by 180,000 barrels per day (bpd), up from an initial report of 170,000 bpd.
"The pipeline fire is continuing and Bonny flowstation, suspected to be feeding it, has been shut down. This brings the deferred volume to 180,000 bpd," a Shell spokesman said.
"The Joint Investigation Team, the Clean Nigeria Association and the Pipeline repair group are visiting the site today. We are still unable to confirm casualties or injuries," he added.
The fire was still burning strongly, with thick black smoke billowing to the height of a 10-storey building.
Shell, which has closed two oilfields to help curb the fire, had no official estimate of how long the outage would last. It represents a 7 percent cut in output from Nigeria, the world's eighth biggest exporter of crude.
A senior industry source said the attack on the pipeline, which flows to the Bonny Light export terminal, had yet to have any impact on exports because the terminal had enough crude in store for planned loadings to continue.
The source also said repairs to the pipeline were expected to take no more than two days, though he added that the repair team had not yet seen the exact extent of the damage up close.
A previously unheard-of group calling itself the Martyrs' Brigade claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened more violence and sabotage of oil installations.
Such threats are commonplace in the Niger Delta and are not always followed up by action.
The group said it was a breakaway faction of the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF), whose leader Mujahid Dokubo-Asari is in prison awaiting a treason trial. The NDPVF issued similar threats after Asari's arrest in September, but later withdrew them after causing only minor trouble.
Three militants with ties to the NDPVF said they had not heard of the Martyrs' Brigade and Asari was not connected to the Shell pipeline attack.
Burned HUTS
Another pipeline, operated by state oil firm Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and running to a refinery, was damaged in Tuesday's blast, an industry source said. No one at NNPC was immediately reachable for comment.
The nearby community of Asagba Okwan Asarama was deserted. About 20 huts, close to where Tuesday's blast ripped through the pipelines, were reduced to blackened ruins.
A local fisherman, who was on the open sea when the blast took place, was desperately searching for his wife and four children. He said he did not know if they had fled or been killed in the explosion.
A local government official said on Tuesday eight corpses had been recovered from the site and other people were missing.
The Niger Delta pumps almost all of Nigeria's 2.4 million bpd. Violence and sabotage targeting the oil industry are frequent in the vast region of mangrove swamps and creeks, where poor local communities feel cheated of the wealth extracted from their lands.
Industry sources have speculated that Tuesday's pipeline attack and two other recent security incidents at oil and gas installations in the delta could be part of a coordinated plan, though there is no certainty.
Motives could include revenge by supporters of a delta state governor who faces corruption charges, or frustration by oil thieves hindered by a recent crackdown, sources say.
Additional reporting by Odai Sirri in Qatar
source: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2005-12-21T162605Z_01_MOL139785_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENERGY-NIGERIA-ATTACK.xml&archived=False 21dec2005
LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell PLC said the fire at its oil pipeline in Nigeria has cut its production by another 10,000 barrels per day, taking the total output affected by the incident to 180,000 barrels per day.
The figure is nearly 6 pct of Shell's global daily volumes which reached around 3.2 mln barrels in the third quarter.
'The pipeline fire is continuing and the Bonny flowstation has been shut down. This brings the deferred volumes to 180,000 barrels per day,' a Shell spokeswoman said.
Work has started to find out the cause of the incident and the extent of the damage, she said.
The incident took place in Port Harcourt, in the Niger river delta. The blast occurred after an attack on the pipeline by an unidentified group of armed men, Dutch news agency ANP reported yesterday.
source: http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2005/12/21/afx2407449.html 21dec2005
Fire Still Rages After Nigerian Pipeline Explosion - Mail & Guardian (S Africa) 21dec2005
Lagos, Nigeria — Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell in Nigeria was struggling on Wednesday to put out a fire that engulfed a pipeline allegedly sabotaged on Tuesday by unknown persons in the southern Niger Delta region, a company spokesperson said.
"The fire is still on. We are trying to determine the extent of the fire. We are organising a flight today [Wednesday] to oversee the situation, the extent of fire," the spokesperson said under the cover of anonymity.
The fire, apparently caused by a dynamite attack according to an initial probe, cut production and this has not resumed.
"We have not resumed operations for now. It is impossible. After fighting the fire, we will have to repair the pipeline and see what again needs to be repaired before we can resume operations," he said.
Shell announced on Tuesday that unknown persons attacked its pipeline near the main oil city, Port Harcourt, resulting in a major spill and fire and slashing production by 170 000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, accounting for about 7% of Nigeria's total crude export.
"Preliminary investigations reveal that the fire may have been caused by a dynamite attack carried out by unknown persons. To help curb the fire, Shell shut its production from Diebu Creek and Nun River fields as well as all land-area facilities except Rumuekpe.
"About 170 000 bpd net oil have been deferred," the company said in a statement.
Shell officials on Wednesday still declined to comment on whether lives were lost in the explosion, which affected nearby communities.
"The number of affected communities is yet to be determined, but we understand that some nearby settlements may have been impacted. We have mobilised a medical team that is now on standby in Port Harcourt," the Shell text said.
Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer and the world's sixth largest with 2,5-million bpd.
The oil-rich Niger-Delta is volatile and a frequent theatre of acts of banditry and piracy, kidnapping of oil workers and stealing of crude oil by irate youths and militia groups demanding for their local populations a major share in oil resources. -- Sapa-AFP
source: http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=259720&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/ 21dec2005
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