Posted on 05/07/2007 10:47:37 AM PDT by bedolido
LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Villagers with sticks and machetes staged a protest at a major U.S.-operated oil production facility in Nigeria on Monday, forcing it to halt 42,000 barrels a day output, authorities said.
It was the latest in a string of attacks on Western oil industry targets in the world's eighth largest exporter, which has curbed Nigerian output by a quarter and helped fuel a global oil price rally.
The protest at the gates of Chevron's Abiteye flow station in the western Niger Delta, which feeds the 160,000 barrel per day Escravos export terminal, was triggered by alleged delays in compensation for an oil spill.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Oh dear! Watch the gas prices at home rise an astronomical $2. Oil companies gotta have some type of an excuse for the unreasonable rise in prices. Couple of weeks ago it was rise in inflation. This week it’s Nigerians protesting. What’s on the agenda for next week?
I’ve worked in Nigeria before. The people are throwing rocks at the oil majors for a good reason. I certainly wasn’t too happy to be there.
I am not anti-oil at all (worked in the business for awhile and still like fuel in my cars!). But, there was an article in National Geographic that was about this area as I recall. Between the graft in the country’s government all the way down to the local village chief, the regular folks didn’t get much for having so much wealth underfoot. And the environmental standards that are non-existent or not met (bribes) really hurts the locals with respects to their normal fishing, crops, etc. way to earn a living.
Having worked overseas at a mine, the environmentalists would be doing “mother nature” a better service if they would allow us to drill and mine in the states where we have laws and they would be followed.
I agree with you 100%. I couldn’t see any trace of benefits being eked out to the locals while I was there... except for the headman, whose hut of dung-and-sticks had a 2nd floor. I know that there are reports of rampant graft, but lord, even the bribed bigshots lived like animals. Even if bribery is used, it seems like $100 will go a lot further in Lagos than it will in Washington. I suspect the dollar value of illegal cash transactions isn’t much compared to the returns.
It’s an interesting problem, to me. Should the Nigerian government tax royalties? I think so. It’s their oil, even if they can’t get at it on their own.
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