Oil flowstations in Nigeria shut over unrest reopen: official

Oil flowstations in Nigeria's troubled Niger Delta shut last week over local unrest have resumed operations, a government official said on Monday.

"There is no problem now. They all resume work," a spokesman for the oil-rich Rivers state government told Xinhua by phone.

Two flowstations in Rivers state operated by US oil giant Chevron were closed last Thursday immediately after over 100 armed militants of the illegal Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (NDPVF) invaded one of them.

A Chevron spokesman however said the company is yet to reopen them.

"We can confirm that our Idama and RobertKiri production facilities in Rivers State have been shut-in, resulting in total production loss of about 27,000 barrels of oil per day," he said.

"We plan to restore production from these facilities as soon as it is safe to do so."

These closures are the result of the arrest of NDPVF top leader Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo Asari early last week as his supporters threatened to attack all oil installations if he is not released.

But the government did not give way but instead deployed more troops to protect key oil production and export facilities in the Niger Delta, where the majority of Nigeria's oil is produced.

Eventually the group withdrew their threat at the weekend as Alhaji urged them to calm down.

Alhaji will still remain in police custody until formal charges are brought.

Nigerian police had said he was arrested over "seditious and treasonable" comments in a recent exclusive interview with a Nigerian newspaper in which he said: "Nigeria is an evil entity. It has nothing to stand on and I will continue to fight and try to see that Nigeria dissolves and disintegrates."

Last year, Asari threatened to launch an overall war against foreign oil companies which helped increase the price of crude to 50 US dollars a barrel.

But President Olusegun Obasanjo later invited him for peace talks in Abuja, where they reached a ceasefire agreement. Since then, he moved to Port Harcourt and surrendered thousands of assault rifles and machine guns.

Nigeria earns billions of oil money every year, but the people in the Niger Delta still live in abject poverty. They usually demand compensation from foreign oil companies by seizing oil facilities, kidnapping oil workers or threat of violence.

Source: Xinhua