Posted by AFP on
US oil gaint Chevron has shut down 15,000 barrels per day of oil production in its facility in southern Nigeria following a militant attack, a company spokesman said Wednesday.
LAGOS (AFP) - US oil gaint Chevron has shut down 15,000 barrels per day of oil production in its facility in southern Nigeria following a militant attack, a company spokesman said Wednesday.
"We have shut down 15,000 bpd from Funiwa oilfield," the spokesman told AFP.
The company said it took the action "to avoid any additional security or safety incidents" following Tuesdays' attack on its floating storage vessel that supports the Funiwa oilfield offshore southern Bayelsa state.
Nigeria's most high profile armed group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) claimed reponsibility for the attack in which six foreign oil workers were kidnapped - four Italians, an American and a Croatian. One Nigerian navy officer was killed in the attack.
MEND said it would release the hostages unconditionally on May 30, adding that the attack was meant to embarrass the government of outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo, who steps down on May 29 after serving two terms.
"We promised to give the present Nigerian administration a shameful send-off. This attack is one in a series intended to embarrass the ... regime," a MEND spokesman said in an email Tuesday.
Nigeria is the world's sixth-biggest oil exporter, with daily output of some 2.6 million barrels. Chevron, the country's third operator, accounts for 520,000 bpd.
In a separate incident on Monday evening in neighbouring Rivers state, the mother of the governor-elect Celestine Omehia was kidnapped by an unknown militant group but was released the following day.
The Niger Delta, a swathe of creeks and swamps and the size of Scotland, is home to Nigeria's multi-billion dollar oil and gas industry.
The region has seen a resurgence in violent attacks on oil firms and personnel over the past two years.
More than 100 foreign workers have been kidnapped, but later released, while scores of Nigerian security personnel have been killed by militant groups or armed gangsters.