Soldiers yesterday contended with militants in an attack on Shell’s Nun River oil facility in the Niger Delta, killing at least two suspected militants and capturing another two, security sources said.
In a statement signed by the Shell External Affairs Director Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke, also released yesterday, the company confirmed the attack but did not mention if there were casualties or crude oil shut-in.
“SPDC has received reports of an attack on its Nun River Field Logistics Base in early hours of today (November 15.) We have no indication of the identity of the attackers or damage or injuries; staff had been evacuated from the field logistics base on October 13 following an attack by militants” Shell said in the statement.
About 60 militants in speed boats launched the pre-dawn raid on the Nun River logistics base in Bayelsa state, but met heavy resistance from about 22 naval details protecting the facility.
“There was a Shell facility the militants were planning to attack. Two were killed and some were captured,” a defence official who pleaded anonymity said.
A security source put the number of suspected militants killed at two. “It is the first significant success of the navy,” he said.
THISDAY gathered that the soldiers and the militants engaged themselves in a gun battle that lasted for some hours but the militants later succumbed to the fire works of the soldiers after two of them were killed and two wounded others were arrested.
The action of the soldiers to fight back followed the complaint by the State Governor, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to the presidency about the refusal of soldiers to engage the militants who are said to be from neighbouring states.
THISDAY gathered from security operatives that the bodies of the two militants felled by the soldiers were yet to be recovered while the two wounded combatants are now under interrogation by the security personnel.
Confirming the incident, the state Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Hafiz Ringim, said suspected youths invaded SPDC flow station at River Nun and two of them were shot down while one was arrested.
He disclosed that the operation did not affect oil production activities on the facility.
It was the second attack on Shell facilities in the Nun River area in a month. Villagers from the Oporoma community had seized a nearby oil pumping station on October 10, capturing 60 oil workers, but they were released after two days.
Shell was forced to reduce output from the facility by 12,000 barrels per day, but production resumed after the siege.
There were no oil workers at the field base that was attacked yesterday because they had all been evacuated after last month’s attack, a Shell source said.
Shell accounts for the lion’s share of about 600,000 bpd of output shut down in the country since a wave of militant attacks in neighbouring Delta state in February.
Another oil production facility at Tebidaba in Bayelsa state has been under siege by militants since November 6, reducing output there by 50,000 bpd.
About 40 workers of Italian oil company Agip were being held on the platform while militants discuss their demands for oil spill compensation with the local government.
Nov162006