Niger River Delta News

Two local contractors in Nigeria recently took delivery of 10-inch Wolverine Class Dredges, designed and manufactured by DSC Dredge at its facility in Greenbush, Mich. As the political capital of Delta State, Asaba is a rapidly expanding city along the banks of the Niger River Delta. There is a growing demand for infrastructure improvement projects, including roads and livable space along the Niger River. Yet, this fast-flowing river brings sand downstream from the interior of the nation.

Nigeria’s crude oil production and exports have been hit by severe outages as a result of attacks on oil infrastructure by rebel fighters in the Niger River Delta. Various sources report that Qua Iboe Terminal has shut down operations until further notice. All tanks on the facility were emptied of crude, operations have ceased completely and all personnel have been evacuated from the terminal, which is operated by ExxonMobil. Qua Iboe is Nigeria’s largest crude oil stream and exports usually more than 300,000 barrels per day (b/d). Exports of Nigeria’s other large crude oil grades, like Forcados, Bonny Light and Escravos have also been restricted, primarily due to sabotage and attacks on pipelines. As a result of the outages Nigeria’s oil production has dropped below 1.5 mb/d.

The Nigerian Navy has foiled an attempt by suspected pirates to hijack and abduct 25 foreign nationals aboard a container ship operated by A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S carrying general cargo to Nigeria with 25 sailors on board, say local media. Executive Officer of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Pathfinder Navy Capt. Olusegun Soyemi, said  at Onne Port in Rivers State, that the vessel berthed safely with the rescued crew members unharmed. According to Soyemi, “On Jan. 5 at about 08:00 hours; Safmarine Kuramo was attacked by sea pirates about 60 nautical miles off the coast of Bonny Island (in Rivers) Fairway Bouy. We got may-day distress call that the ship was boarded by unconfirmed number of sea pirates after entering the nation’s territorial waters.

on offshore oil and gas assets in Nigeria, www.TheStandard.com reported. CNOOC is eyeing an offer for Nations Energy, an independent oil producer based in Canada. The move by CNOOC comes after the company announced the acquisition of a 45 percent stake in oil and gas fields owned by Nigerian oil company South Atlantic Petroleum earlier this week. The deepwater fields are contained in a 1,295-square-kilometer tract off the Niger River Delta and contain estimated recoverable reserves of 1.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Nine-year-old Nations first bought assets in Kazakhstan in 1997. It operates OJSC Karazhanbasmunai - Kazakhstan's ninth-largest oil producer - in the west of the country on the Caspian Sea. The company has sunk about $370 million into the Central Asian operation.