A kidnapper was gunned down yesterday and 20 of his colleagues arrested when a Nigerian Navy ship on rescue mission swooped on them at the Pennington oil flowstation where the armed bandits have held hostage 18 workers of US oil major, Chevron Texaco, in the last two days.
The rescue operation was launched by the Joint Military Task Force on the Niger Delta, with the Naval warship NNS Kyanwa in the lead.
At least one of the hostages was seriously injured during the rescue operation.
THISDAY gathered that the rescue operation was made more difficult by the fact that the kidnappers wielded highly sophisticated arms and resisted being dislodged.
"One of the hostage-takers was killed and a Chervon staff seriously wounded in the course of the operation," a top official of the military task force told THISDAY on the phone.
The youths, our cheeks revealed, stormed the flowstation on Tuesday demanding the immediate payment of N260 million to an indigenous security company said to have worked for Chevron on the platform. They also demanded for compensation for oil spillages that allegedly occurred in the area in the recent past.
The workers were abducted on Wednesday when the youths of Bini-Oru Security from the Foropa Community stormed ChevronTexaco's Middleton and Pennington Oil Platforms off the coast of Bayelsa State.
The action has since led to loss of 300 barrels of oil per day (bpd) following the closure of the Middleton platform.
The international oil market reacted swiftly to the attack on the US oil firm, with crude prices rising sharply to $32 per barrel.
Chevron said in a press statement signed by the company's General Manager, Public and Government Affairs, Mr. Sola Omole, that following intense negotiations with the youths, four of the kidnapped workers was initially released.
"Fourteen persons are still being held by those who boarded the facilities. So far, no one has been reported injured," the company said.
Chevron said the incident has been reported to federal security agencies. It added that both the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Department of Petroleum Reso-urces (DPR) and other state agencies, had also been informed of the kidnap.
"Senior officials of the Bayelsa State Government were helping with the negotiations to ensure a safe and peaceful resolution of the incident," it stated.
Wednesday's abduction of Chevron workers, was the second of such attack on the company's personnel in two weeks. Early last week, 12 oil workers were kidnapped on the Escravos waters on their way to production facilities. The 12 were released later.
The latest issue almost disrupted participation of ChevronTe-xaco in the Annual International Conference of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Exporationists (NAPE) in Abuja, as its representatives hurriedly evacuated their exhibition stand.
"This onslaught is getting too much, it seemed the youths have turned it into a big-time business," said a senior official of the company. Chevron said in the statement that it was prepared to take further actions deemed necessary to ensure the safety of its personnel and protect the NNPC/Chevron joint venture's assets.
It would be recalled that Chevron, Nigeria's third biggest oil producer, has been losing 140,000 bpd of its oil output since last July, after the company was forced to close all its swamp production facilities following rising ethnic violence in the Warri area of Delta State.
The Nigerian Gas Association (NGA), a body of gas producing and distribution companies, said yesterday it was worried by the incessant youth restiveness, which it said, was induced by the deep sense of marginalisation in the Niger Delta.
According to the spokesman of the group, Mr. Mike Owhoko, the body will hold a stakeholders' session next week to look at how host communities could be involved in the effective management of crisis to reduce threats.
NGA noted that the unrest in the Niger Delta has eaten deep into Federal Government revenue.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian kidnap saga, coupled with yesterday's multiple explosions in Istanbul, Turkey and reports of a possible decline in US crude oil stocks, sent oil prices to a high $32.92 per barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange .
The Secretary General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Alvaro Silva, said the group will produce more oil if prices remain outside its $22-$28 a barrel band.
OPEC has pledged to keep its basket price within the range by raising output by 500,000 barrels a day if the basket price holds above $28/bbl for 20 consecutive trading days, or lowering output by 500,000 b/d if the basket price stays below $22/bbl for 10 consecutive trading days.
OPEC will meet on December 4, to settle new target output ceilings. It cut production by 3.5 percent last September to defend the band after a sudden steep fall in prices triggered fears of a price collapse.
From THISDAY news
I know these two postings have not been directly relevant to rotorheads, but in the spirit of this thread "What's new in West Africa" I thought they are relevant. Anyone who's flown there knows the real and ongoing dangers of being hijacked, and the current situation whether or not it involves helicopters or pilots on this occasion, is relevant, I believe. Anyway, at least this particular event is over. It won't be the last time we see similar things with the Ijaws, or particularly the Ijaw youth, though.