What's the chance the Nigerian Guvmint and Shell will cough up the money?
Nigeria Militants Report Clash, Vow More Oil Worker Kidnappings
March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Militants whose attacks have shut down about a quarter of Nigeria's oil production said their forces killed three government soldiers two days ago and vowed to kidnap more foreign oil workers in the Niger River delta.
``Our units have been directed to capture more expatriates across the Niger delta,'' Jomo Gbomo, a spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said today in an e-mailed statement.
The militants are holding hostage Cody Oswald and Russel Spell of the U.S. and Briton John Hudspith. They were abducted with six other oil workers on Feb. 18 from a Willbros Group Inc. boat near the Forcados export terminal, run by a venture of Royal Dutch Shell Plc. The six others were released on March 1.
Kidnappings and attacks last month on a pipeline and an oil terminal forced Shell and other companies to halt output of about 556,000 barrels a day. Shell shut down all production in the western Niger River delta and hasn't resumed output. Eni SpA told clients on March 23 that it's delaying shipments from Nigeria after saboteurs damaged a pipeline that runs to its Brass terminal on March 17.
The MEND statement today said that the Nigerian soldiers were killed in the Soku area of Rivers State in the eastern Niger delta. Shell's venture in Nigeria pumps oil and gas from the Soku area.
A navy spokesman said the men died as a result of their patrol boat capsizing, Agence France-Presse reported, citing Captain Obiora Medani.
The militants, in their statement, said they captured the patrol boat and weapons.
``The attacks will resume in earnest and the three hostages in our custody as well as those we will capture in the next few days will not be released until our conditions are met,'' Gbomo said.
The militant group is demanding that the government release Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, a former governor of Bayelsa state, who was impeached and arrested on money-laundering charges, and Mujahid Dokubo Asari, a militia leader jailed on treason charges.
The militants also want Shell to pay $1.5 billion to the Ijaw people, the biggest ethnic group in the Niger delta, as compensation for alleged environmental damage.
Nigeria produced 2.28 million barrels of oil a day in February, making it the sixth-biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, according to Bloomberg data.
The fifth-biggest supplier to the U.S., Nigeria produces low sulfur, or sweet, crude oil, prized by refiners for the proportion of high-value gasoline it yields.