By Upstream staff
Oil companies in Port Harcourt, the main city in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta, have reinforced security for their staff following a wave of kidnappings and attacks, industry sources said today.
Two security experts working for oil majors said companies had enforced a lockdown, meaning that staff were not able to leave their gated compounds. One of the experts said this was in response to threats of new attacks by a militant group.
Shell, Italy’s Agip and Total of France are the three biggest oil companies with offices and residential compounds in Port Harcourt, where violence has surged since the start of 2007.
Official spokesmen for the companies said they could not comment on security measures.
A source at Shell said there was a partial lockdown, but it was not affecting operations. “Our offices are running normally but we are trying to keep some people at home,” Reuters quoted the source as saying.
The Niger Delta, which accounts for all of the oil output in Nigeria, Africa’s largest producer, has seen a surge in crime and militancy over the past year.
A fifth of oil output capacity was shut down last February after militant attacks on facilities in the western delta and that production has yet to resume.
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