Militant youths occupied an oil installation in restive southern Nigeria on Friday, shutting down its production of 5 000 barrels a day, officials said. The oil installation — a so-called flow station installation near Yenagoa, the capital city of Bayelsa state — is operated by a Royal Dutch Shell joint venture in Nigeria.
A foreign hostage has died of illness in the oil-producing Niger Delta in southern Nigeria, a source in the Bayelsa state government said on Sunday. The source had no details on the illness, the circumstances of the hostage’s death or his nationality, but said the body was at a hospital morgue in Yenagoa.
Nigerian militants freed 12 foreign hostages and one Nigerian in the oil-producing Niger Delta on Monday as a prelude to peace talks with the incoming government of President Umaru Yar’Adua. The release of the men, including one South African, five Britons and three Americans, was the latest sign of easing tensions in Africa’s top oil producer.
The people of the oil-rich Niger Delta see the rise of one of their own to vice-president (VP) as an opportunity to reduce poverty and violence, although activists say time is tight. Goodluck Jonathan, governor of Bayelsa State in the delta and running mate of president-elect Umaru Yar’Adua, will carry the hopes of many in a region troubled by militancy.
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/ 7 December 2006
Nigerian gunmen in about seven speedboats attacked an Agip oil export terminal in the Niger Delta early on Thursday, kidnapping three Italian workers and killing a local youth, authorities said. The gunmen tried to storm Agip’s Brass terminal, which exports about 200 000 barrels per day, at 5am local time.
Twin explosions hit oil installations belonging to Italian oil company Agip in Nigeria’s volatile south-eastern delta region, officials said on Thursday. Officials suspected sabotage in the explosions on Wednesday along two pipelines in Baleysa state.
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/ 27 January 2006
Nigerian militants said on Friday they have pulled out of talks on the fate of four kidnapped Western oil workers, as officials released the first picture of the hostages. The dangerous crisis in Africa’s biggest oil-export industry continued to push world crude prices back towards their historic high.