According to this report, the leadership of MEND is sufficiently satisfied with a new government program to improve life in the Delta Region that MEND will cease its military operations against oil production.  But according to this other report dated three days after the first one, MEND is totally at war with the government and the oil companies after government troops attacked MEND patrols.  Talk about a volatile situation.  Can stability in Nigeria ever be achieved?   And if it were reportedly achieved, could it be relied upon to continue?  It does not seem that way right now. 

Niger Delta Militant Group Calls Ceasefire in Nigeria Oil Region

By Joe De Capua / Chinedu Offor
Washington / Abuja
11 September 2008

In Nigeria, the main militant group in the Niger Delta has called for a ceasefire. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) made the announcement Thursday in response to the creation of a government agency to develop the oil-rich region.

VOA reporter Chinedu Offor is on assignment in Nigeria. From the capital, Abuja, he spoke to English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua about why MEND has confidence in the latest government proposal.

“According to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, the government has recognized that it needs to create an agency that would directly respond to the development of the Niger Delta in terms of infrastructure, environment and jobs for the young people. It says it has made these demands for several years without the government acting on it. And that by doing this, the government has shown its good faith in sincere efforts to solve the problems of the Niger Delta,” he says.

After years or broken promises and failed efforts in the region, why would MEND trust the government at this point and vice-versa? Offor says, “For one, it is believed that the ministry was created because of the input of the vice-president, Jonathan Goodluck, who is from the Niger Delta. The government also has created what it calls a technical committee to put together concrete proposals for the development of the Niger Delta. The government has promised directly to fund this new agency without recourse to other ministries. And it is believed that someone from that area…will head this new ministry.”

He says officials believe because local people will make up many of the ministry employees, corruption will be thwarted. Offor says, “The complaint has often been that strangers are running the ministries in charge of affairs of the Niger Delta.”

Offor says because MEND is satisfied with the government’s action so far, it has called a ceasefire and an end to the destruction of oil pipelines and to hostage taking that has plagued the Delta, with many foreign oil workers being targeted. While the announcement is expected to sharply reduce abductions, experts say some small criminal gangs may continue the practice. Another large militant group, the Niger Delta Volunteer Peoples Force, also supports the government’s plan.

No financial figure has been given for the Delta development project, but funding would come from oil revenues.

Offor says initially the plan probably will have little effect on reducing vandalism of oil pipelines because locals steal petrol. Such vandalism often results in fatal fires. He says many of those stealing petrol are driven to do so by poverty.

Niger Delta Militants Attack Shell, Chevron Plants (Update2)

By Dulue Mbachu

Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) — Nigerian militants said they killed at least 22 soldiers and destroyed parts of Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Soku gas plant and Chevron Corp.’s Kula oil pumping station in overnight attacks.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said in an e-mailed statement that it also blew up a crude pipeline at Nembe at several points. Chevron confirmed the attack on its Kula pumping station in Robertkiri, which lies in the Kula district, southwest of the main oil hub of Port Harcourt.

“There was an attack on Robertkiri flow station, though it was already shut due to pipeline leakage,” a Chevron spokesman said in a telephone interview from Lagos, declining to be identified. Shell spokeswoman Caroline Wittgen said the company is investigating reports of attacks on its facilities.

The Nigerian military “heroically and successfully repelled the attack,” spokesman Lt. Col. Sagir Musa said in a telephone interview, without providing details.

Attacks by armed groups, including the MEND, cut Nigeria’s oil exports by more than 20 percent since 2006, disrupting fields operated by Shell, Europe’s biggest oil producer. Shell extended a suspension of export obligations for its Bonny Light crude on Sept. 12 after discovering further leaks on a pipeline attacked by MEND in July.

`Oil War’

MEND said yesterday it was declaring an “oil war” in the Niger Delta in response to a military raid on its positions. Nigeria’s army said it returned fire when militants attacked a routine patrol.

“The operation will continue until the government of Nigeria appreciates that the solution to peace in the Niger Delta is justice, respect and dialogue,” MEND said in its statement today. All international oil and gas loading vessels entering the region must drop anchor and wait at sea or they’ll be destroyed, MEND said. It repeated a warning to oil companies to evacuate staff as it plans to raze facilities “to the ground.”

Chevron is monitoring the situation to ensure employees are safe, Houston-based spokesman Scott Walker said by e-mail.

Though Nigeria has Africa’s biggest hydrocarbon reserves, with more than 30 billion barrels of crude and 187 trillion cubic feet of gas, it has dropped behind Angola as the continent’s biggest oil exporter because of violent disruptions. The west African country is the fifth-biggest source of U.S. oil imports.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dulue Mbachu via the Johannesburg bureau at vwessels [Email address: vwessels #AT# bloomberg.net - replace #AT# with @ ]

Tags: peak oil energy investments

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