Jomo Gbomo
Jomo Gbomo: How Nigeria’s Faceless Rebel Emailed His Way Into The $2 trillion Dollar Oil Club.
BY Sunny Ofili
DATE : Tuesday, 12 December 2006
Sometimes last year, Jomo Gbomo, a faceless rebel who fronts the now-dreaded Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta better known as MEND to both locals and the foreign media fired off an email to a list of international news media consisting mostly of news agencies threatening to wreck havoc on oil installations in the Niger Delta if his movements demands are not met by both the Nigerian government and oil companies operating in the region.
Unbeknownst to Jomo Gbomo, that single email catapulted him into the $2 trillion dollar oil club - an exclusive club whose membership is reserved for sheiks, presidents of oil producing countries and, perhaps the president of oil cartel, OPEC.
MEND’s attacks on Nigeria’s oil facilities in the Niger Delta, which have been accompanied by at least 20 separate abductions of foreign oil workers, have shut-in at least 500,000 b/d of oil production at any given time since February. Nigeria produces between 2.2 million and 2.4 million b/d.
On November 3, 2006, minutes after the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria warned of “impending attack of up to 20 oil facilities in Africa's biggest oil producing country” oil prices rose on the news and traded up 92 cents at $58.80 a barrel for the front-month December contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange.Just this past Sunday, he facilitated an interview with one of the four hostages currently being held by group confirming that he is firmly in control of the group."The fact that we have influenced the price of world oil, no matter how little, and caught the attention of the foreign media indicates we are on the right track." Gbomo said in one of his many emails.
Jomo Gbomo said in an e- mail response to Dow Jones Newswires that he could "confirm that we are planning attacks in the delta."
"Timing of these attacks I can't reveal," but Gbomo added that it would not fall within the first week of November timeframe given by the U.S. consulate.
The accounts, along with threats of future attacks that later occurred and Gbomo's knowledge of the movement of s abducted oil workers, have supported Gbomo's claim to be close to MEND's leadership.
Gbomo and MEND are taken quite seriously by the both the international media and the international oil market. His name and that of his movement is subject of discussion on web blogs dedicated to the oil market.
“The media-savvy guerrilla group's emergence as a market mover points to a mounting problem for the U.S. and other big oil consumers: maintaining energy security in an era of scarce oil resources and ever-longer supply lines. With today's tight oil markets, even small disruptions -- or the threat of them -- can jolt the world economy, leading to higher costs of gasoline, airline tickets and other goods for consumers everywhere... Now even Mr. Gbomo's small group, armed with little more than machine guns and an email account, has realized that it, too, can use oil as a weapon on the global stage.” John Robb said in one of his blogs.
The more cynical bloggers have wondered if the Nigerian government has propped up Gbomo and his rebel movement as an alternate way of influencing the international oil market outside of OPEC’s influence.
“Perhaps the corrupt Nigerian government is using Gbomo and MEND as their tool to exert a special sort of destabilizing control over the delta while simultaneously extorting higher royalties from the western oil companies?” Another blogger wrote.
MEND’s demands are well articulated by its spokesperson and leader, Jomo Gbomo. In several communications via email with The Times of Nigeria, he demanded the release of one of its leaders, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari and a greater control of the oil resources in the region. Asari was arrested and jailed in 2005 on charges of treason for calling for autonomy for Niger Delta.
Jomo Gbomo is quick to point out that the movement’s struggle was not limited to its demand for the release of Asari. “He is one of our demands but the movement is far greater than one man. We want control of our resources.”
A
Andrea
(view)
Jomo Gbomo: How Nigeria’s Faceless Rebel Emailed His Way Into The $2 trillion Dollar Oil Club.
BY Sunny Ofili
DATE : Tuesday, 12 December 2006
Sometimes last year, Jomo Gbomo, a faceless rebel who fronts the now-dreaded Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta better known as MEND to both locals and the foreign media fired off an email to a list of international news media consisting mostly of news agencies threatening to wreck havoc on oil installations in the Niger Delta if his movements demands are not met by both the Nigerian government and oil companies operating in the region.
Unbeknownst to Jomo Gbomo, that single email catapulted him into the $2 trillion dollar oil club - an exclusive club whose membership is reserved for sheiks, presidents of oil producing countries and, perhaps the president of oil cartel, OPEC.
MEND’s attacks on Nigeria’s oil facilities in the Niger Delta, which have been accompanied by at least 20 separate abductions of foreign oil workers, have shut-in at least 500,000 b/d of oil production at any given time since February. Nigeria produces between 2.2 million and 2.4 million b/d.
On November 3, 2006, minutes after the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria warned of “impending attack of up to 20 oil facilities in Africa's biggest oil producing country” oil prices rose on the news and traded up 92 cents at $58.80 a barrel for the front-month December contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange.Just this past Sunday, he facilitated an interview with one of the four hostages currently being held by group confirming that he is firmly in control of the group."The fact that we have influenced the price of world oil, no matter how little, and caught the attention of the foreign media indicates we are on the right track." Gbomo said in one of his many emails.
Jomo Gbomo said in an e- mail response to Dow Jones Newswires that he could "confirm that we are planning attacks in the delta."
"Timing of these attacks I can't reveal," but Gbomo added that it would not fall within the first week of November timeframe given by the U.S. consulate.
The accounts, along with threats of future attacks that later occurred and Gbomo's knowledge of the movement of s abducted oil workers, have supported Gbomo's claim to be close to MEND's leadership.
Gbomo and MEND are taken quite seriously by the both the international media and the international oil market. His name and that of his movement is subject of discussion on web blogs dedicated to the oil market.
“The media-savvy guerrilla group's emergence as a market mover points to a mounting problem for the U.S. and other big oil consumers: maintaining energy security in an era of scarce oil resources and ever-longer supply lines. With today's tight oil markets, even small disruptions -- or the threat of them -- can jolt the world economy, leading to higher costs of gasoline, airline tickets and other goods for consumers everywhere... Now even Mr. Gbomo's small group, armed with little more than machine guns and an email account, has realized that it, too, can use oil as a weapon on the global stage.” John Robb said in one of his blogs.
The more cynical bloggers have wondered if the Nigerian government has propped up Gbomo and his rebel movement as an alternate way of influencing the international oil market outside of OPEC’s influence.
“Perhaps the corrupt Nigerian government is using Gbomo and MEND as their tool to exert a special sort of destabilizing control over the delta while simultaneously extorting higher royalties from the western oil companies?” Another blogger wrote.
MEND’s demands are well articulated by its spokesperson and leader, Jomo Gbomo. In several communications via email with The Times of Nigeria, he demanded the release of one of its leaders, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari and a greater control of the oil resources in the region. Asari was arrested and jailed in 2005 on charges of treason for calling for autonomy for Niger Delta.
Jomo Gbomo is quick to point out that the movement’s struggle was not limited to its demand for the release of Asari. “He is one of our demands but the movement is far greater than one man. We want control of our resources.”
