Output of 55 000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil was cut in Nigeria when armed protesters on Monday forced the closure of a flow station belonging to Italy’s Agip company in the Niger Delta, an Agip official said.
”A total of 55 000 bpd were shut in as a result of the forced closure of the Tebidaba flow station in Bayelsa state,” said the official, who demanded not to be named.
”There were 48 persons — all local staff — on the flow station when it was invaded by the protesters,” said the official, who declined to comment on whether the workers were being held on the oil facility.
The protesters invaded the Tebidaba flow station in the volatile Niger Delta region and forced workers to shut it down, he said.
Agip officials have rescinded their earlier decision to issue an official statement on the incident, he said.
The attack came only three days after the United States government warned its citizens not to fall victim of planned attacks on oil facilities in the delta after last week’s kidnap of two oil workers, an American and a Briton.
The kidnappers on Monday demanded a ”huge ransom” for the release of those two men, who were abducted last Thursday, a source close to the negotiators said.
”Before today [Monday] we had reached a point of agreement on their initial demands for social amenities such as water, roads, schools, electricity and scholarships. But today, to our surprise, they demanded a huge ransom, I mean cash,” the source, who asked not to be named, said.
A notice issued by the US consulate and posted on Friday on the embassy’s website said that it had learned that a militant Niger Delta group may have completed plans to launch concerted attacks on oil facilities in the region.
The US and British nationals, working for Norwegian oil services firm Petroleum Geo-Services, were kidnapped in Bayelsa state and taken to an unknown location. — Sapa-AFP