JOURNAL: Shell facilities disappear from Niger Delta (UPDATE)

Last year, Shell Oil abandoned facilities that produced 600,000 barrels a day of oil due relentless attacks by the global guerrilla facilitator MEND. Upon its return to these facilities this month, the company found much of its infrastructure missing. In the area near the Forcados terminal alone, 435 miles of pipeline disappeared (likely disassembled by hand, loaded onto barges, offloaded onto Ukrainian transport ships offshore, and delivered to Chinese scrap metal dealers -- globalization is grand, isn't it). Estimates of the reconstruction costs now exceed $2 billion, under the assumption both Shell and its construction partners will be allowed to return unimpeded. That isn't a good bet: 11 Daewoo construction workers working on a power plant deep inland (which shows the guerrillas have more reach than ever) were kidnapped and two assaults were made on off-shore platforms as recently as last week. Further, MEND like its counter-parts in Iraq, are very adept at the disruption of corporate activity. So far, the returns on its investments (ROIs) have been stellar.

UPDATE: It was premature. MEND took down three major pipelines (2 ENI Agip and one Shell) in Nigeria on May 7th and has given ample warning that it will continue to ramp attacks. The current outage adds 150,000 more barrels a day from ENI and 100,000 from producers using Shell's infrastructure. This means the new grand total is 844,000 barrels a day of lost production (that's more than two times the daily output of Prudhoe bay). Given MEND's goal of "making Nigeria ungovernable" the post election transition period is best time to ramp attacks both in terms of opportunity and effects.

Comments

[Ortho]

Similar tactics throughout Africa.

I received your book yesterday. I look forward to reading it during the next two weeks.

[MrPeace]

Why has Angola been so successful in increasing its output?

http://www.afrol.com/articles/11314

Angolan oil production to double by 2008
afrol News, 18 February - According to an analysis published today, Angola's crude oil production averaged 923,000 barrels per day in 2003, and is predicted to double by 2008. The Angolan oil sector already accounts for nearly half of the country's GDP, and is estimated to get an even more dominant role in the national economy.

These estimations were presented today in the latest Angola update of a US government agency, the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The principal reason for the continued strong growth of the Angolan oil sector is the newly found peace and stability after the 28-year civil war ended in 2002.

According to the EIA analysis, growth has already been tremendous. Angola's crude oil production has increased by nearly 600 percent since 1980 and the fastest growth has been registered the last two years. New investments in explorations offshore Angola will increase production to an expected 2 million barrels per day by 2008 - or about the current level of Nigeria, today's largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa.

[Cavolonero]

The pipe should be uselful for bunkering, or , maybe making IEDs. ( Talk about putting the ' Ipes ! ' back in pipe bomb )