By Adam L. Freeman
June 18 (Bloomberg) — Eni SpA, Italy’s biggest oil company, said armed militants attacked one of its flowstations in Nigeria yesterday, leaving 27 people unaccounted for.
Eight out of 24 workers and 40 of 51 soldiers managed to escape the attack at the Ogbainbiri facility, Rome-based Eni said today in a statement posted on its Web site. The company couldn’t say if the missing people had been kidnapped, according to a spokesman who declined to be named. Eni said it knew of no casualties at the station.
Eni has been struggling to increase output after militant attacks in Nigeria and expropriations in Venezuela hampered operations. The company’s production fell 13 percent in the first quarter. The latest attack comes less than a week after Chief Executive Officer Paolo Scaroni said output at another Nigerian facility had returned to normal following an attack in May.
Militants are targeting foreign oil companies to press their demands for a greater share of Nigeria’s wealth.
“It’s a problem of local populations versus oil companies because they assert that money has gone to Switzerland or evaporated with little benefit to them,” Antoine Leurent, an analyst with KBC Securities in Paris, said by telephone today. “With low production costs, companies accept the political risk.”
Oil installations belonging to Eni and Royal Dutch Shell Plc have suffered numerous attacks, causing Nigeria’s production to fall by about 600,000 barrels a day, more than a quarter of the country’s output.
40,000-Barrel Plant
An Eni spokeswoman, who asked not to be named because of company policy, wasn’t immediately able to say if the latest clash affected output. Italian news agency Ansa said the Ogbainbiri station has a capacity of 40,000 barrels a day.
Ogbainbiri, in the Niger Delta’s Bayelsa state, was the location of a gun battle last week between the military and suspected militants that left eight militants dead, Azibapu Eruyani, a spokesman for Bayelsa state, said by telephone today.
Shell last week said the situation in Nigeria prompted it to cut at least 200 jobs from its operations there and lose at least $100 million.
To contact the reporter on this story: Adam L. Freeman in Rome at [email protected]
Last Updated: June 18, 2007 07:21 EDT
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
