A militant group calling itself the Niger Delta Gorillas, a purported arm of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has written an e-mail to most of the major oil and gas companies, asking them to withdraw all the expatriates on their rigs. Some rigs were specifically mentioned.
Of these, the Noble Don Walker is working for Chevron the Ensco 100 is working for ExxonMobil, but is not a Noble drilling rig. The “Ferrenton” is probably the Homer Farington, which is in the far west in support of Erha FPSO.
The other rigs mentioned that are supporting ExxonMobil are down towards Eket, and are much closer inshore. The 72-hours will expire at 03h40 on Saturday morning.
Note: Even if this communique has genuinely come from an active militant group, there is no increased exposure for the Tommy Craighead operating in our field. The reach of specific militant groups, though very occasionally extended, tends to be limited to areas within which they have a measure of support from their local communities and a good geographical knowledge of the creeks within which they operate.
NTC is a long, long way from Warri (where this group is said to be based) and there is a wealth of Noble targets they could reach before even considering NTC as a target.