Oil militants in Nigeria announced Wednesday that they had blown up yet another Chevron oil well. The bombing was a response to the rejection of the Nigerian government’s offer of peace talks.
The attack happened just a day after the government demanded the militants stop bombing to talk, but the Niger Delta Avengers refuse to discuss the matter.
This is the fourth attack in a month on one of Chevron’s facilities. Just last month, Chevron had to stop operations at its 160,000 barrel per day Escravos export terminal. Nigeria’s production has been halved to nearly 1.2 million barrels per day due to bombings of installations for Dutch-British Shell and the Italian company, Agip.
Recent attacks put an end to many years of peace in the delta. In addition to this, Nigeria has lost its place as Africa’s largest oil producer, with Angola taking the lead.
The militant group used Twitter to send their warning: “At 1:00am today, the @NDAvengers blow up Well RMP 20 belonging to Chevron.”
Chevron declines to comment on the attacks.
Militants have demanded a larger share of Nigeria’s oil wealth for local areas and have told all international oil companies to leave the Niger Delta. Oil makes up 80 percent of the government’s revenue, but the pollution caused by production has devastated farmlands and fishing grounds.
Community officials and activists alike have sided with militants saying their requests align with those made by the region for several decades.
The militant group also opposes the government’s scaling back of a 2009 amnesty program. The program paid 30,000 militants to secure the installations they once bombed.
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