Italian oil company, Eni has declared force majeure on 37,000 barrels a day oil shipments from Ogbainbiri flow station in Bayelsa State in the Niger Delta after the facility was attacked at the weekend.
The declaration of force majeure allows companies to suspend contractual obligations to customers, such as deliveries of oil and gas, following unforeseen events without incurring penalties.
Eni confirmed that 27 people including 11 soldiers were being held hostage at Ogbainbiri flow station after the facility. The attack came barely 24 hours after men of the Joint Nigerian military killed eight militants.
There is also further trouble in Nigeria as a general strike began today after unions rejected government concessions on fuel prices as too little too late. The offices of Western oil companies are closed although exports are uninterrupted.
“All our offices are locked up but there has been no interference in our operations yet,” a senior executive at a large Western oil company told Reuters.
Depends what you mean by interference really..