Oil companies in Port Harcourt, the main city in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta, have reinforced security for their staff following a wave of kidnappings and attacks, industry sources said on Monday.
Two security experts working for oil majors said companies had enforced a lockdown, meaning that staff were not able to leave their gated compounds. One of the experts said this was in response to threats of new attacks by a militant group.
Anglo-Dutch group Royal Dutch Shell, Italy’s Agip and France’s Total are the three biggest oil companies with offices and residential compounds in Port Harcourt, where violence has surged since the start of 2007.
Official spokesperson for the companies said they could not comment on security measures.
Copy-cat kidnappers
A source at Shell said there was a partial lockdown, but it was not affecting operations.
“Our offices are running normally but we are trying to keep some people at home,” said the source, who did not wish to be named because he is not an official company spokesperson.
The Niger Delta, which accounts for all of the oil output in Nigeria, Africa’s largest producer, has seen a surge in crime and militancy over the past year.
A fifth of oil output capacity was shut down last February after militant attacks on facilities in the western delta and that production has yet to resume.
The situation has worsened in Port Harcourt in recent weeks as copy-cat kidnappers seek ransoms for expatriate workers and other criminal gangs take advantage of a breakdown in law and order.
Four foreigners, one each from the United States, Britain, the Philippines and France, have been snatched in the city since the start of the year in three separate incidents. Only the Briton has been released.
In total, 31 foreign hostages seized in six separate incidents are still being held by different armed groups in various parts of the Niger Delta. Three are staff of Agip, while one was working on contract for Total.
On January 28, hundreds of militants stormed a police headquarters and fought a four-hour gunbattle with security forces in a densely populated area of Port Harcourt to free one of their leaders. They freed another 125 suspected criminals.
Armed robberies have also multiplied, including one on February 9 in which five people were shot dead.
Poverty and a near total collapse of public services due to corruption among local government officials have contributed to the growing unrest in the Niger Delta, where residents resent the multi-billion dollar oil industry.