Nigerian authorities hunted for nine foreign workers being held as ”human shields” by rebel fighters on Tuesday as the crisis in Africa’s biggest oil industry forced world oil prices up sharply.
The nine oilmen — three Americans, a Briton, two Egyptians, two Thais and one Filipino — were seized on Saturday by separatist guerrillas during an attack on the energy giant Shell’s Forcados oil terminal.
Damage to the terminal and surrounding pipelines, combined with fears for the safety of other workers, has forced the firm to cut production by 455 000 barrels of oil per day, 18% of Nigeria’s total output, the firm said.
New York trading in Nigeria’s sweet light crude was suspended on Monday for a United States holiday, but opened up sharply on Tuesday as analysts worried that crises in four of the world’s major oil exporters could hit supplies.
At 1.19am in New York, sweet light crude for March delivery was up $1,07 to $60,95 a barrel from its close of $59,88 on Friday.
”When Nymex opened, the market had to adjust this morning to a lower global supply of crude and the higher geopolitical risk premium,” said Darius Kowalyczk, a Hong Kong-based investment strategist with CFC Seymour.
Between them, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria and Venezuela represent 7,5-million barrels of oil production per day. Iraq and Nigeria now face violent insurgencies, while Iran and Venezuela are in diplomatic spats with the West.
Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo, fearing that more attacks against the oil industry would force oil giants to pull out from the winding creeks of the Niger Delta, has ruled out military action to free the hostages.
”We believe that very, very soon we should be able to reach the hostage takers. We’ve put in place a very powerful committee,” said Abel Oshevire, a spokesperson for the Delta state government.
The panel will be chaired by Chief Edwin Clark, the most senior traditional ruler among the Niger Delta’s 14-million-strong Ijaw tribe, and will seek to contact the Ijaw separatists who are holding the oil workers, he said.
”They’re swinging into action. We’re expecting some good news,” he said.
Captain Obiara Medani, spokesperson for the Nigerian navy, confirmed that the military is holding off from rescue missions or reprisal attacks against the Ijaw militants in order to ensure the safety of the foreign workers.
”It’s political now. The military is not in charge of things, we’re just maintaining surveillance,” he said.
He said it is thought that the militants grabbed the oil workers in order to protect themselves from reprisals after a similar hostage drama last month, when four Westerners were held for 19 days in the delta swamps.
”The issue is now a ‘human shield’ situation,” he said. ”They were aware that the military was going to react to the last kidnapping and put a stop to their activities,” he explained, adding that the navy has ”a good idea” where the hostages are being held.
The rebels, in statements to the media, have said the men will not be released, and attacks on oil facilities not stop, until Shell pays $1,5-billion in compensation to polluted Ijaw communities.
They also demand the release of two jailed Ijaw leaders — a separatist warlord and an ousted state governor accused of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars — and insist the delta region must control its own resources.
Meanwhile, a Shell spokesperson in Lagos confirmed the loss of 455 000 barrels of daily oil production — supplies from Forcados and the EA offshore field, which has its own floating export terminal.
He said a ”force majeure” statement already in place to warn clients that the company will be unable to honour all of its contracts to supply Nigerian crude has been extended indefinitely.
The Niger Delta, a 70 000-square-kilometre swathe of swampland and mangrove, usually produces 2,6-million barrels per day, but most people in the region live in grinding poverty and resentment of the government is high. — Sapa-AFP