In a dangerous escalation of their activities, Nigerian militants attacked Royal Dutch Shell's Bonga FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) vessel offshore Nigeria yesterday. Bonga is 75 miles offshore and is capable of producing 225,000 BOPD, or about 10% of Nigeria's production. While there has been militant activity for years in the Niger Delta region, this is the first time a major offshore oil facility has been attacked. Bonga is capable of offloading oil directly to tankers thereby eliminating any need to go into dangerous ports. It was thought that this type of development would be protected from attack by virtue of its distance from shore. Although several people were injured, the militants failed to gain access to the control room. They then kidnapped an American captain of a supply vessel on their return to shore.
Nigeria is a major oil supplier to the US. No matter what the Dimmocrats think, the price of oil will not decrease as long as stuff like this is going on. Not only do we need to start developing our own energy sources, but we will need to protect our interests in producing fields around the world.
PE spent some time in Lagos several years ago helping to set up the Bonga operations offices for Shell. I also went to Port Harcourt to check on facilities there. Everywhere you look, there were young men hanging out with nothing to do. Just the sort of guys that will follow anyone who will give them an AK and a meal. Folks, expect trouble from here soon.
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Imagine being on the FPSO with incoming RPG's and 7.62x39 rounds.
"Ryan, be careful. Some things in here don't react too well to bullets."
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