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Kenya: Locals Storm Tullow Oil Fields in Turkana

Tullow Oil has been forced to suspend operations at its two blocks in Turkana after locals stormed the facilities on Saturday. Two area Members of Parliament marshalled local residents to match to Tullow’s camps demanding for jobs for the locals and supply contracts for the communities. The affected are Block 10BB and Block 13T in Turkana East and Turkana South. Tullow Oil and Canada’s Africa Oil Corporation each have a 50 per cent working interest in the two blocks. Over 2000 Turkana residents matched into the two camps in an incident that saw some looting of Tullow properties. No one was injured during the skirmish, Tullow Oil officials said. Sources said the locals were seeking to chase away all the Tullow employees who are not locals and have them replaced with locals. Tullow estimates that out of the 1,700 employees at the two blocks, close to 900 are from […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Ethiopia sees oil and gas exploration, but rebels are a threat

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Oct. 25 (UPI) — Amid East Africa’s oil and gas boom, the more adventurous oilmen are starting to gravitate toward the vast Ogaden desert region of Ethiopia, where drilling activity has been sparse since rebels attacked an exploration team in 2007, killing nine Chinese and 65 Ethiopians. Oilmen believe Ethiopia lies on the same oil-bearing strata as the massive discovery in Kenya by British-based Tullow Oil in early 2012. Initial estimates are that Ethiopia has oil reserves of around 2.7 billion barrels. That’s a modest enough total in global terms, but it’s a potential bonanza for an impoverished state like Ethiopia, which has been land-locked since Eritrea broke away to form an independent state on the Red Sea in 1991 after a 30-year separatist war. The Horn of Africa country has not produced any oil in commercial quantities since its first oil seep was reported in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Nigeria's booming oil theft racket costs $1B a month

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, Oct. 18 (UPI) — Royal Dutch Shell is selling off four of its onshore Nigerian oil blocks because of the constant theft of large volumes oil from its pipelines, officials said. The move highlights the West African state’s growing battle with criminal syndicates that are stealing an average of 100,000 barrels of crude a day. That costs the continent’s second largest economy after South Africa up to $1 billion a month, a criminal enterprise on an industrial scale that officials say rivals the narcotics trade as the world’s most lucrative crime. Oil industry officials and community workers say this massive theft of Nigeria’s key resource involves crooked politicians, security forces, oil industry personnel and oil traders. There are also militant groups operating in the oil-rich but impoverished Niger Delta, a labyrinth of swamps and creeks that provide cover for the complex network of crime. “There’s a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Nigeria’s booming oil theft racket costs $1B a month

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, Oct. 18 (UPI) — Royal Dutch Shell is selling off four of its onshore Nigerian oil blocks because of the constant theft of large volumes oil from its pipelines, officials said. The move highlights the West African state’s growing battle with criminal syndicates that are stealing an average of 100,000 barrels of crude a day. That costs the continent’s second largest economy after South Africa up to $1 billion a month, a criminal enterprise on an industrial scale that officials say rivals the narcotics trade as the world’s most lucrative crime. Oil industry officials and community workers say this massive theft of Nigeria’s key resource involves crooked politicians, security forces, oil industry personnel and oil traders. There are also militant groups operating in the oil-rich but impoverished Niger Delta, a labyrinth of swamps and creeks that provide cover for the complex network of crime. “There’s a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple