Chevron Pipelines Attacked In Nigeria and Columbia; FARC May Be Responsible In Columbia

In the ongoing matter of Chevron and Nigeria comes a report from UPI declaring that "Nigeria attack cripples Chevron". Moreover, the same report points a finger at militant groups like the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). And while there's no recorded link between MEND and Chevron accuser Larry Bowoto, it seems the two have similar aims: to cripple Chevron's presence in the region, as well as that of Royal Dutch Shell.

Consider this UPI report:

Chevron Corp. has declared a force majeure on its oil exports following a particularly destructive attack on one of its installations in the Niger Delta.
Officials at the U.S. oil company said that though production was unaffected at offshore installations, Chevron could not meet its production quotas for customers because of shortfalls caused by the pipeline attack last week at the Escravos oil field in the delta.

Though Chevron would not say just how much production was lost due to the attack, Nigerian energy officials estimated the losses at over 100,000 barrels per day, a blow that prompted the company to declare force majeure, relieving them of their contractual obligations until the assaulted pipeline can be repaired and secured.

Chevron, meanwhile, is not the only company reeling from the recent increase in violence against foreign oil interests by armed militant groups in the delta. Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS-A), the leading foreign petroleum company operating in Nigeria, suffered yet another in a long list of attacks at its Bonga facility last week, prompting the Anglo-Dutch company to halt production for several days.

It wasn't the first time Shell was forced to scale back production due to militant violence. In January, Shell shut down operations at its Forcados terminal following pipeline attacks that threw its 100,000 barrel-per-day production offline. The terminal already had been shut once before because of violence and reopened in October 2007 after more than a year of halted production. Since its reopening, the facility, which can produce some 450,000 barrels per day, had been operating at a fraction of its capacity.

FARC May Be Behind Anti-Chevron Ecuador Efforts

It seem that MEND has something in common with FARC, the same organization that kidnapped now freed politician Ingrid Betancourt: both have apparently bombed Chevron pipelines. in FARK's case, such an activity has been ongoing since 2001, but not limited to Chevron at that time; Petroecuador pipelines -- Petroecuador has long been a partner to Chevron in the region -- were the targets of that Columbian rebel group and that continues today.

Since Ecuador's charging that Columbia's using U.S. made weapons, it seems that Chevron's made as the scapegoat, when it provides much needed employment to the region as is true in Nigeria.

Agent Trick In Columbia Could Have Been Used To Get Saddam

I happened on this CNN website news headline reporting that the agents who rescued the Columbia hostages used "old-fashioned trickery" by pretending to be part of the FARC, then leading the band to safety, rather than where the hostages thought they were going, to meet international leaders.

That's fantastic. But my question is why could we not have done that in Iraq? I've long believed we didn't need to have a big military effort to do this; that we could send people to embed into the culture and work their way in.

In my view, the effort of the Columbian rescuers gives yet another reason why we should not have invaded Iraq, let alone started the Iraq War we're still in.