Navy, Shell Beef Up Security Following Threat to [Attack Installations]

The Nigerian Navy and Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell said yesterday they had beefed up security after a threat by armed militants to destroy a major offshore storage and export facility. Shell said that it had credible evidence that “criminal elements” had begun making preparations to destroy the Sea Eagle, a mammoth floating oil station designed to process 170,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The Sea Eagle, which is permanently moored 15 kilometres (nine miles) off the western Niger Delta, has a capacity of 1.4 million barrels of crude and any attack could provoke an economic and environmental catastrophe. “The navy is not treating the threat lightly. We have intensified patrol and surveillance around the area. There is no cause for alarm,” Nigerian Navy spokesman Sinebi Hungiapuko said. For two months sporadic unrest in the Western Niger Delta has disrupted oil production. At the height of the crisis, more than 40 percent of Nigeria’s exports were cut off, but offshore facilities were spared. In addition to being Africa’s biggest oil producer, Nigeria is the world’s sixth most important exporter, with an OPEC quota of more than two million barrels per day, much of it destined for the United States. Full Story