Niger Delta militants on Thursday made good their threat to resume attacks on oil workers and facilities by hitting the multi-million dollar Bonga and Pennington oil fields of the Shell Petroleum Development Company.
Three oil workers, including an American, were taken hostage and an oil vessel was hijacked by the militants during the incident that occured 60 nautical miles off the coast in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta claimed responsibility for the attack which forced the SPDC to suspend operations at the fields.
MEND said in an e-mail to our correspondents that it captured the American, Mr. Jack Stone, to forestall any attempt by military authorities to dismiss the incident as a mere accident.
The group�s Spokesman, Mr. Jomo Gbomo, said the operation was targeted at the computerised central control system of the facility.
It added that when its detonation, engineers could not access the control room, they decided not to blow up the facility to avoid loss of lives.
Part of the e-mail reads, �Our detonation engineers could not gain access to blow it up but decided against smoking out the occupants by burning down the facility to avoid loss of life.
�However, our next visit will be different as the facility will not be spared. We therefore ask all workers in the Bonga Field to evacuate for their safety as the military can not protect them.
�In order that the Nigerian military does not pass off this humiliating breach as another �accident�, an American, Captain Jack Stone, from an oil services company, Tidex, has been captured.
The statement was, however, silent on the fate of the two Nigerian oil workers who military sources claimed, were kidnapped along with Stone.
MEND said the location of the attack was deliberately chosen to remove any notion that its men could not access off-shore oil exploration facilities.
One of the military sources told our correspondents that Stone and the two Nigerian oil workers were in the vessel, Solar Tide vessel, Suffer 253 SSB sailing close to the oil filed when the militants struck.
The source said, �About 95 militants decked in military uniforms came to Bonga and Pennington oil fields of Shell located 60 nautical miles off the coast at about 2am on Thursday.
�They were there till about 3.30am. They came in many speedboats from the various militant camps in Agge, Ezetu and Bilabiri. They attacked the Floating Production Storage Platform, which is very strategic to the operation of Shell. They also abducted three oil workers found in a Solar Tide Vessel, Suffer 253 SSB.
�One of the abducted oil workers is an American captain of the vessel, Mr. Jack Stone. They released gunfire on arrival and seized the vessel. We are still trying to ascertain the location of the vessel and the crew.�
He also claimed that the militants thereafter looted and carted away some major equipment in the oil locations.
There was however conflicting information on the oil firm that owned the vessel. One source claimed it belonged to the SPDC while another said it was owned by Chevron Nigeria Limited.
When contacted, the Commanding Officer of NNS Delta, Warri Naval Base, Navy Capt. Samson Ojediran, said a patrol ship was deployed in the scene minutes after news of the attack reached him.
Ojediran, whose jurisdiction covers the location of the facility, said the effects of the attack were minimal.
He said, �The ship will patrol the general area, not only the Bonga and Pennington fields. These hoodlums attempted to attack the facilities when our patrol team went to secure other locations. They must have studied the movement of our people along the waterways and discovered that they were not in the area at that time.
�Actually, they had been threatening but I can tell you that the damage in this attack was minimal. They know that our men are within the vicinity and that they would crush them if they wasted time in any location.�
SPDC�s spokesman, Mr. Precious Okolobo, who also confirmed the incident, said none of its officials was kidnapped.
UPDATE::
(Reuters) – Militants from Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta said they released an American oil worker captured in an attack on an offshore oil facility earlier on Thursday.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said U.S. captain Jack Stone from oil services company Tidex was freed at 16:45 p.m. GMT.