More on Bonga..
The following was taken from a recent chat posting to Oyibosonline - a site for oilies working in the Delta:
You could not make this up.
Take this with the usual pinch of salt that all oilfield rumours require, and please use alternate sources to confirm or deny this story.
Thursday morning Bonga was attacked, 3 speed boats, apparently 200 bullet holes in the lifeboat area and one compressor damaged, production was shut in, and about 40 of the 75 people wanting off were evacuated over the next couple of days.
NNS Ologbo turns up on the Friday and needs fuel (fuwel for those here long enough) and food, food is given the fuel is a problem, hose connections and the fact she cannot stay still alongside the supply boat.
Saturday NNS Nwamba turns up and NNS Ologbo disappears, away to stock up *cough*. So moving swiftly on to Tuesday there are signs of life on the Bonga flare goes up Bonga begins to get deeper in the water, production has started, all is looking good. You would be expecting a tanker soon to come and take all that lovely black liquid money away. Now it Sunday the Flare is very low and the Bonga is deep in the water, no tankers have been seen.
Here is where you can not begin to make it up, the reason for no tankers appearing at Bonga, the Navy ran over the hose/crashed into the loading buoy depending on where you hear the rumour. So MEND and the Militants 4-5 days shut in production, the Nigerian Navy who knows.
I chalk this one up for the Navy
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this from the papers
Last Saturday, the Nigerian navy sent two frigates to patrol waters near and around the Bonga. The NNS Nwamba and the NNS Ologbo are two small frigates, each reported to be mounted with two 30mm canons and a total crew of about 50. One military source said the two vessels deployed would only have a dissuasive effect, as they are not sufficiently mobile and no match for the MEND speedboats.
Picture links here, here and here.
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9 comments:
Erm, so sorry, i'm a bit slow this morning, what exactly is the point of this story? I'm not getting it biko.
Being slightly cynical in nature, I find it hard to believe that militants attack oil installations just to score points against the government and oil companies. I mean, they supposedly make money when the oil's flowing from oil bunkering. Even though I have no evidence whatsoever, I wonder about the possibility of militant leaders (or politicians?) betting big money on the price of oil, knowing that major attacks on oil installations would inevitably increase the price oil. With margin trading, and the money made from oil bunkering, they could be making millions, even tens of millions of dollars on each attack.
If I could figure out who they were, and play the oil market the way they do, I bet I would win every time (Hey, I said I was cynical!). On the other side, if the government knew who they were as well, they could increase security on oil installations when those investors made a major move. However, the number of kilometres of pipeline to protect probably makes that option impractical. The militants could also use different investment companies every time. :(
This isn't stopping in a while, regardless of the efforts of the government to better the lives of the people of the Niger Delta. There's too much money to be made.
Better title for this post woulda been 'Deep Throat'..
@ anon 12:25, exactly what I thought too. :-)
Looks like the militants are set for the Niger Delta summit.
'derin, the point of the post is to uderscore how inept the Nigerian navy is. One of the vessels deployed saw service in US in the 1950's before being decommissioned (by the US Coastguard) and acquired by us.
Quite frankly, rather than tolerating the losses to bunkering and militancy (or are they the same thing now, i'm a bit confused), the govt should simply take on Blackwater or some such Dogs of war, pay them 1% commission on all oil lifted and take care of the militants once and for all.
All this pissing in the wind with militancy is long passed its sell-by date.
Nonsense!
or..."Smokeless fire?" or "Smoke and Mirrors"? or "Fact/Fiction"? or "They Say..." (God, i'm on a roll, and God, I"M GOOD!!)
or "An Official Tale", or "A Tale of Two Boats", or "Tale Boat" or "tail Bait".
.maybe i shoulda quit while i was ahead...?
lol
Those boats are NOT frigates, they are coastal patrol boats, with very short ranges. There is only one frigate in the Nigerian Navy and it is the Flagship of the fleet - NNS Aradu
...and its in the dry dock after a "boating mishap" during an excercise, or so I've heard
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