A community group in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta said on Wednesday it had shut down an oil facility operated by Eni’s Agip in Bayelsa state’s Nembe 5 region following a dispute with the company that included the provision of jobs for locals.
The company did not respond to a request for comment.
The group, which called itself the Agrisaba Oil and Gas Committee, said production was shut down on Tuesday evening after it failed to resolve a number of disputes with the firm, including over the provision of jobs for locals.
“The community has therefore decided that the facility be shut down till further notice until such a time that all these knotty issues have been resolved,” it said in a statement.
Oil production in the delta, in the southeast of Africa’s biggest crude exporter and largest economy, has often been disrupted by locals frustrated at the lack of development in their communities.
Last week, protesters shut down crude oil production at two flow stations of the Nembe oilfield over what they said was the sell-off of the region’s energy wealth without the approval of its inhabitants.
The protesters, mostly young men, arrived in about 30 speedboats and climbed the fence at one station with no resistance, and dodged security at the other.
SOURCE: Business Day