Last week, a militant group, Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), said it ended a self-imposed cease-fire and will resume its violent campaign.
“Our operatives are intact and focused, ready to implement instructions,” the Niger Delta Avengers said in a statement on its website by a spokesman identified as Mudoch Agbinibo. “We can assure you that every oil installation in our region will feel the warmth of the wrath.”
The NDA, a militant group that last year claimed several attacks on infrastructure in the oil-rich Niger Delta. “Our next line of operation will not be like the 2016 campaign which we operated successfully without any casualties. This outing will be brutish, brutal and bloody,” Agbinibo said.
READ ALSO: UPDATE 1: Niger Delta Avengers suspend ceasefire
The NDA said it would target a floating production and storage facility under construction at a South Korean shipyard, to be operated by the Nigerian subsidiary of French supermajor Total.
The militants accused President Muhammadu Buhari’s government of being slow to meet their expectations of more local control over the region’s oil resources.
There was an immediate spike in crude oil prices following the announcement by the militants demonstrating the impact of the pronouncement.
“Unlike many other militant groups that issue threats online, the Avengers’ announcement needs to be taken very seriously,” Malte Liewerscheidt, senior Africa analyst at Bath, U.K.-based Verisk Maplecroft, said. “The Avengers’ area of operations in 2016 was confined to the areas west of Warri between the Benin and Forcados Rivers. It is highly likely that any potential future assaults will take place within the same area.”
READ ALSO: We will continue to engage N/Delta groups- Usani
West Texas Intermediate for December delivery advanced $1.10 to settle at $55.64/bbl on the New York Mercantile Exchange and climbed for the fourth week. Total volume traded was about 13 percent below the 100-day average. Prices rose as high as $54.84/bbl. Brent for January settlement added $1.45 to end the session at $62.07 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The global benchmark traded at a premium of $6.21 to January WTI.
Just like the attacks on oil installations in past, other oil-producing countries benefit from the spike in the oil prices resulting from the militancy attacks while Nigeria’s production output suffers.
During the 2016 attacks, Nigeria’s output was cut to the lowest in three decades. The country suffered its worst economic downturn in a quarter-century after oil prices crashed and output plummeted. The government estimated the attacks caused the country a loss of $7 billion in revenue.
The Avengers’ attacks subsided after a truce with the group in August last year to allow for peaceful negotiations.
Nigeria is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries but is exempt from the OPEC-led effort to balance the oversupplied market with coordinated production cuts.
FRANK UZUEGBUNAM
