Militants and villagers on Monday attacked an Italian-run oil
platform in southern Nigeria and are holding nearly 50 people
hostage, a government official said.
"Some militants overran Tebidaba flow station and now we are
making contact with them," said Victor Akenge, environment
commissioner of Bayelsa state where the facility is located.
"They are armed youths and community members working together.
They are angry about neglected pollution over the years. They want
spill sites cleaned up and compensation paid."
About 48 Agip workers and security staff are being held at the
flow station, located deep in the mangrove swamps of Bayelsa State
in southern Nigeria.
Agip, a unit of Milan-based ENI, said it has halted its
50,000-barrel-a-day production at Tebidaba, the latest target in a
recent wave of attacks against the oil industry in the world's
eighth largest exporter.
"Of course production is blocked," an Agip spokesman in Milan
said.
There were oil spills in the Tebidaba area in March and July as
a result of explosions along Agip's pipeline, which feeds the
200,000-barrel-a-day Brass tanker terminal.
It is often difficult to distinguish between militancy and crime
in the lawless delta, where almost every community has munitions
arsenals and vigilantes, and theft of crude oil from pipelines is
widespread.
In this case, the protesters are arguing that compensation is
due because the spills were caused by equipment failure, Akenge
said.
Many residents of the impoverished region resent the
multibillion-dollar industry for damaging their environment while
bringing them few benefits. Many fear violence will intensify in
the run-up to general elections in April.
A series of attacks by the militant group, Movement for the
Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), in February forced Shell to
pull out hundreds of workers from neighboring Delta State and
reduce output by about 500,000 barrels per day.
(China Daily November 7, 2006)
