Militants Warn Niger Delta Oil Workers Of Imminent Attack

IBADAN, Nigeria -(Dow Jones)- The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, has warned local and foreign oil workers to leave the Niger Delta within the next 72 hours due to an "imminent attack."

A MEND spokesman in a statement Friday described the imminent attack as "Hurricane Piper Alpha" adding "it will not discriminate on tribe, nationality, or race when it sweeps across the region."

He said MEND was giving what it described as a "final warning" to local and foreign workers in oil services and exploration companies to vacate the Niger Delta because of the imminent attack.

He said the warning was being given to avoid civilian casualties and that MEND didn't want to take the advantage of a surprise attack.

In June 2008, MEND attacked Nigeria's biggest offshore facility, Royal Dutch Shell Plc's (RDSA) Bonga field, located 120 kilometers offshore. The Bonga oil field, with daily production capacity of 200,000 barrels of oil and 150 million standard cubic feet of gas, was shut down.

Since February 2006, MEND and other militant groups in the Niger Delta have kidnapped more than 250 local and foreign oil workers and destroyed several oil and gas pipelines and other facilities.

They have succeeded in cutting Nigeria's oil exports by more than 1 million barrels a day, according to estimates by Nigerian oil industry officials.

MEND and troops of the federal government-backed Joint Military Task Force, or JTF, have fought fierce battles since mid-May in Nigeria's southern Delta state, after the task force said the militants ambushed and killed some of its officers in the region.

-By Obafemi Oredein, Dow Jones Newswires; 234 2 7510489

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 06, 2009 03:25 ET (07:25 GMT)

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