ExxonMobil beefs up security at Nigerian terminal

Offshore staff

(West Africa) - ExxonMobil has beefed up security at its Qua Iboe terminal in southern Nigeria due to a threat of attack by militants, company officials and industry sources say.

The measures, which industry sources say included asking non-essential staff to stay away from work, did not affect oil production and loadings at the 420,000 b/d terminal.

"We're just hiking security around the terminal," company spokesman Yemi Fakayejo says, declining to give details of specific measures.

A four-month campaign of sabotage, bombings and kidnapping by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has been focused on the western side of the delta and targeted against Royal Dutch Shell

Another militant group known as the Martyrs' Brigade has been threatening a rocket attack on the Qua Iboe terminal, on the eastern side of the delta, but security sources say this group has no proven ability to carry out the threat.

Last week, MEND killed two people in a car bomb at an army barracks in the eastern delta city of Port Harcourt, and it said on Tuesday that it planned a similar attack this week.

"We will set off another remote controlled car bomb somewhere in the Niger Delta this week," MEND said in an email to Reuters, adding that it was not responsible for the threat against ExxonMobil.

MEND says it will continue its attacks until it closes down Nigerian oil exports completely unless the government gives the delta, which accounts for all Nigerian oil output, more local control over its resources.

04/25/06