Darfur rebels say they kidnap foreign oil workers
October 24, 2007 (EL-FASHER, Sudan) — The Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said on Wednesday it had attacked the Defra oil field in Block 4, one of Sudan’s largest sources of crude, and kidnapped two foreign oil workers.
“This is a message to China and Chinese oil companies to stop helping the government with their war in Darfur,” said JEM commander Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr. He added they had taken two oil workers hostage, one Canadian and one Iraqi.
The Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC) a consortium involving India’s ONGC (ONGC.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), China’s CNPC (0135.HK: Quote, Profile, Research), Malaysia’s Petronas (PETR.KL: Quote, Profile, Research) and Sudanese state-owned Sudapet operates in Sudan’s Blocks 1, 2 and 4 and produces the light Nile Blend crude.
It produces around 265,000 barrels per day of Sudan’s total output of more than 500,000 bpd of crude. The area straddles Sudan’s north-south border.
JEM spokesman for the Kordofan region, which neighbours Darfur, Ali al-Wafi Bashar, said the attackers had fought Sudanese forces near the oil installation on Tuesday.
“We took three army vehicles and killed 20 soldiers,” he added.
“We want all oil companies to leave Sudan within one week,” he said, without giving details.
The region has seen protests by Sudanese demanding more jobs in the oil sector and complaining of environmental damage caused by drilling.
The oil ministry and the army were not immediately able to confirm or deny the attack.
One source in Khartoum’s oil industry confirmed an “incident” but said Nile Blend pumps were running at normal levels.
“There has been no change in the levels of crude,” the source said.
This is not the first time Darfur’s rebels have attacked in the neighbouring Kordofan region.
China is the largest investor in Sudan’s oil industry, after most Western companies pulled out during a bitter north-south civil war and after the United States imposed sanctions in 1997.
Rights activists say China’s military cooperation and help in producing oil in Sudan fuelled the north-south war and the newer separate conflict in the western region of Darfur.
(Reuters)