Oil majors were on high alert in southern Nigeria on Thursday after at least three people were killed in an armed attack on foreign-owned oil facilities.
Unidentified armed men attacked facilities owned by two foreign oil companies overnight, while a third oil major, which was attacked earlier in the week, starting relocating the families of its staff.
An attack on Total took place at the Obagi residential facility in the southern Rivers State, heartland of the oil industry in the volatile Niger delta.
"In Obagi, we have three deaths among the policemen guarding the facility," a company spokesman at the group's headquarters in France said, adding that no Total employee had been killed.
Armed men also attacked a flow station operated by Agip, a subsidiary of Italy's Eni, at Tebidaba in the neighboring southern state of Bayelsa, a military officer said on Thursday.
Eni said it was "not aware of any damages to the flowstation nor to Agip's personnel."
It made no mention of possible casualties among any other party, saying only that "18 local workers and no expatriates were present at the flowstation" at the time of the incursion.
It was not apparent whether there was any link between the two attacks.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for either attack.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), an armed movement operating in the delta, on Thursday said it was not involved in either incident.
A spokesman for Total said earlier that the attack on his company was not the work of any militant organization but rather that of bandits.
MEND carried out and claimed responsibility for two car bombs on Monday in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, that targeted two other oil majors, Shell and Agip.
The group also threatened to step up both the intensity and the "ruthlessness" of its attacks on oil company targets and made comments that might have been perceived as particularly threatening to Shell, industry sources said.
"We hear they are beefing up security in their premises but if the Green Zone in Iraq can be penetrated, how difficult will it be to penetrate Shell?" MEND said.
Shell on Thursday began relocating the families of its staff from its three residential facilities in the delta -- Port Harcourt, Warri and Bonny -- to a location or locations outside Nigeria. Industry sources said some 400 family members were affected.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese