Attaks and Kidnappings

Nigeria produces over 2 million barrels of oil a day (currently valuedat roughly $40 billion per year) which account for 90% of its export earnings and 80% of government revenue.
Nigeria also supplies 9% of US imports and is a pillar in the US post 9/11 African oil strategy devised by the Bush administration, which anticipates that the Gulf of Guinea will provide perhaps 25% of US imports by 2015. The Niger Delta Region is the main area where the black gold is extracted,and the focal point of Nigerian and international economical interests in the country.
Since the discovery of oil the region has always been volatile, plagued by corruption, environmental disasters, ethnic conflict and, more recently, waves of kidnappings of expatriates and attacks on the oil industry carried out by heavily armed rebel groups and gangs of robbers. Rebels and gangs operate both inland and offshore, which demonstrates their power and knowledge of the territory. Mystrass is a platform vessel that has been anchored 90 km off the coast of the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt for three years. Last November it was attacked and hostages were taken. The boat with hostages and gangs on board was intercepted by the police, who shot and accidentally killed a Briton and badly wounded an Italian expatriate.
The time I visited the Mystrass vessel the crew was putting up barbed wire and considering new strategies to prevent future attacks.
A few days ago, on Thursday May 3rd, MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, a coalition of militia groups fighting for greater regional control of oil and gas resources in the region ) attacked Mystrass and took 6 hostages.
After the fraudulent presidential elections in Nigeria the region has seen a series of new and well organized attacks against oil companies and the contractors who work with them.
The Niger Delta is gripped by tension and expatriates are being advised by Embassies all over the world to stay in their compounds or better, leave Nigeria and return to the safety of their own countries.















Here is the Chronology of some major Attacks and Kidnappings from the beginning of 2007:

-- Jan. 12, 2007 - Nine South Korean workers and one Nigerian are freed two days after being kidnapped from the Bayelsa state capital, Yenagoa. 



-- Jan. 16 - A Dutch oil worker and two other people are killed when their boat, operated by South Korean firm Hyundai, is attacked on its way to the Bonny Island export terminal. 



-- Jan. 18 - Gunmen free five Chinese workers kidnapped on Jan. 5 in Rivers State. An Italian is also released. 



-- Jan. 23 - Gunmen kidnap two engineers, one American and one British, in the southern oil city of Port Harcourt. They are released in February. 



-- Jan. 27 - A Belgian working for a building materials company dies of wounds after gunmen ambushed him in Warri. 



-- Feb. 4 - Nine men working for the Chinese National Petroleum Company, which was doing work for Shell in Bayelsa, are released after being kidnapped on Jan. 25. 



-- Feb. 6 - Gunmen abduct a Filipino worker on the road between Port Harcourt and Owerri. 



-- Feb. 7 - A Frenchman, working for oil giant Total, is kidnapped in Port Harcourt. He is rescued by troops on March 16. 



-- Feb. 13 - Militants release all 24 Filipino crew members captured when their cargo ship, belonging to a German company, was attacked on Jan. 20. 

-- Feb. 18 - Gunmen kidnap one Montenegrin and two Croatian oil workers, employees of Hydrodrive Nigeria, in Port Harcourt. They are rescued by the military on March 12. 



-- Feb. 23 - Gunmen kill a Lebanese construction engineer in Port Harcourt. 

-- Feb. 26 - Two Italians working for a construction company are released. They were kidnapped near Port Harcourt on Feb. 23. 



-- Feb. 28 - Gunmen kidnap a Lebanese construction worker who was employed by a local firm, in Rivers state. 



-- March 8 - A Filipino oil contractor is freed. 



-- March 14 - Militants release two Italian workers they had been holding hostage since Dec. 7. 


-- April 4 - A Dutch manager for German building contractor Bilfinger Berger, kidnapped in Port Harcourt on March 23, is released. A British worker, abducted from the Bulford Dolphin oil rig on March 31, is freed. Two Lebanese employed by Setraco who were abducted in Bayelsa on April 2 are also released. 



-- April 7 - Gunmen kidnap two Turkish engineers from their car in Port Harcourt. One works for Merpa, a Turkish firm that maintains telecommunications on oil platforms. 



-- April 27 - Gunmen kill two policemen in a failed kidnap attempt in Port Harcourt as the officers were escorting a convoy of vehicles carrying expatriate staff to work. 



-- May 1 - Four Italians are among six oil workers kidnapped from an offshore oil facility operated by U.S.-based Chevron. Chevron reduces output by 15,000 barrels a day. 



-- May 3 - Gunmen kidnap 20 foreign workers in three attacks in the Niger Delta, but eight are freed within hours. Saipem reduces output by about 50,000 barrels a day. 



-- May 5 - Gunmen abduct a British oil worker from Trident 8 rig operated by U.S.-based Transocean off the coast of the state of Bayelsa. Separately, gunmen abduct a Belarussian woman, who works as a manager of Britain's Compass Group, from outside her residence in Port Harcourt's exclusive GRA district.

(estract from Oyibos online)