Security reinforced in oil region

Security reinforcements have been strengthened in Nigeria's oil region following renewed threats by militants to oil operations, witnesses and industry sources said on Tuesday. About 1,000 anti-riot policemen were deployed last week around the Qua Iboe oil export terminal of ExxonMobil, at Eket, on Nigeria's eastern coastline. "The heavily armed policemen have mounted roadblocks on all approaches to the terminal," Moses Ikanga, a resident of Eket, told IRIN. Militants of the Ijaw, the largest ethnic group in the Niger Delta oil region, under the banner of Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), last month warned that unless residents of the region gained more access to oil resources, oil firms should close operations by 31 May or face their wrath. This prompted deployment of security forces at installations considered vulnerable to attacks and disruption, oil industry sources said. In other parts of the Niger Delta, threats of attacks on oil installations have grown since a Supreme Court judgment last month gave the federal government control over all offshore oil resources. "The threats appear serious enough and we've received assurance of security back-up from the government," a senior oil company official told IRIN. Officials of Shell, the biggest oil operator in Nigeria, on Monday told a delegation from the federal ministry of defence that visited its headquarters in Port Harcourt, they needed additional security for its on-shore and offshore facilities in the light of the recent threats. The Chief of the Navy, Samuel Afolayan, said necessary steps would be taken to protect the company's facilities. "The Navy is charged to remove whatever obstacle that will disrupt peace" in the oilfields, he said. The delegation was also due to visit Shell's oil export terminal and the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas plant, both of which are located at Bonny Island, on the Atlantic coast, to assess security needs. In the past decade, angry youths from the impoverished communities of the oil region have frequently disrupted oil operations through protests, including sabotage and hostage-taking, to back demands for more access to the region's oil wealth. In April, militants boarded an offshore oilrig operated by ChevronTexaco and held 88 foreign and Nigerian workers hostage for days to back demands for employment and amenities. The ultimatum subsequently issued by the IYC is widely seen as a signal that further disruptions by militants were imminent.