Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer and the eighth largest in the world, exporting some 2.5 million barrels of oil per day. The Obasanjo government has ambitions of doubling output by 2010. Further, Nigeria is the fifth-largest supplier of oil to the US and is expected, along with the Gulf of Guinea region, to provide nearly 25% of US crude by 2016 as an alternative to both the volatile Middle East market and the leftist Latin America market . The George Bush administration pronounced as far back as 2002 that African, and specifically Nigerian, oil would be “a strategic national interest” and would engage US military force to protect it if necessary. As developments unfold in 2006, this pronouncement could have serious implications to the US private sector.
Kidnappings in the Niger Delta are not uncommon and often are not reported in mainstream media. They often occur when local communities perceive foreign oil companies as not only not living up to promises of infrastructure construction or development, which Obasanjo calls “good corporate citizenship” (source), but also of absconding with natural resources from their lands without restitution. Kidnappings often follow protests or other civil upheaval that target the extraction industry and its perceived unfair allocation of jobs and/or resources to the indigenous community. The Ijaw Youth Council , which represents a significant regional ethnic group, is often involved in coordinating civil unrest. Additionally, on July 20, 2006, the National Association of Itsekiri Graduates (NAIG) announced “disappointment and disenchantment” with Chevron for what NAIG perceives as “injustice and marginalization of the Itsekiri nation” (source) in favor of other tribes. The NAIG went on to say, “?while [the Itsekiri nation] believe in the concept of the rule of law as well as dialogue as a veritable tool for conflict resolution, they will not fail to resort to the use of force?” This could be a warning of violence to come targeting Chevron.
Whereas in the past violence was sporadic, episodic, and generally not well organized, since The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND; Group Profile) formed in late 2005 as a splinter group of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF) and became known in its first spectacular attack against an oil pipeline on December 20, 2005 , its political message has been refined and the pace of operations has increased. Militants, especially those representing MEND, snatch employees as bargaining chips variously for greater shares in extraction revenues or for the release of their incarcerated cohorts. MEND alone has kidnapped 18 foreigners in 2006, all of whom were released unharmed. While oil companies typically deny paying ransoms, the practice is believed to be fairly common (not just in Nigeria) and perpetuates kidnappings, as it is perceived to be a successful model to achieve desired goals and causes collateral violence against the oil companies.
Since the beginning of July 2006, MEND and other, less powerful militias have launched targeted acts of kidnapping and sabotage against the oil infrastructure in Nigeria, primarily in the Niger Delta, as was anticipated in the May 17, 2006 WAR Report. Michael Loss, a contractor from Westminster Dredging to Royal Dutch Shell PLC, was kidnapped from his houseboat in the Niger Delta’s Bayelsa state Gharan field on July 6 was released safely on July 10 . Just days prior to the Loss snatching, a retired naval officer working for Conoil was also snatched in Bayelsa state . Both represent the most recent in a spate beginning in February. Like these cases, most Niger Delta kidnappings end peacefully. Similarly, attacks against the infrastructure are also not uncommon. Most recently, on July 12, Italian extraction firm Eni, a subsidiary to Agip, downplayed two explosions in Bayelsa State that were likely acts of sabotage by unidentified militants wanting control over oil revenues.
To reiterate the forecast TRC issued in May 2006, the “high rate of attack is likely to continue through the 2007 Nigerian elections unless a significant dialog is established with a peaceful ethnic Ijaw people’s delegation or even with the rebels themselves. In the meantime, it is unlikely the Niger River delta militants will remain as restrained as in years past with hostages and targeted bombings, so the lethality of attacks in the coming months should be expected to climb significantly” (May 17, 2006 WAR Report).
