In an early Wednesday attack, Niger Delta militants have blown up two Chevron oil wells in Warri, leading a shut down in the wells and promising further output drops for Nigeria.
The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) have claimed responsibility for the attack via their Twitter feed, not that they "blew up Chevron oil well RMP 23 and 24 [at] 3:44 am this morning."
These are Chevron's Bibi oil wells, run by Chevron Nigeria Limited.
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The militant group also noted that it had a "heavy presence of 100 gunboats, 4 warships and jet bombers," and that the attack was meant "to show the whole world that the Nigeria military is good in [sic] harassing innocent Nigerians".
The attack comes as Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari plans a visit to the Niger Delta region on Thursday to address the resurgence in militancy that has taken half of the country's production offline already.
According to the IBTimes UK, a suspected member of the NDA was heard in a video recording of a radio interview as saying that Buhari "should sign his death warrant" before attempting to visit the Niger Delta.
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The attack also comes less than a day after the deadline imposed by the NDA for all foreign oil companies to leave the Niger Delta.
As of Monday, oil and condensate production in Nigeria is down to 1.1 million barrels per day, according to Nigerian petroleum officials, with 50 percent of output offline. Over one million barrels per day of production has been lost.
On Saturday, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) made another strategic move by blowing up oil and gas pipelines belonging to Shell and Eni-owned AGIP. The attacks targeted Shell's Bonny terminal trunkline and AGIP's Brass export terminal.
Last week, militants used explosives to blow up Chevron's Escravos terminals main electricity feed pipeline, rendering the terminal inoperable.
By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com
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