Save for later Print Download Share LinkedIn Twitter Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua on Wednesday swore in new cabinet ministers, including those responsible for oil, power, commerce and national planning. Former Opec Secretary-General Rilwanu Lukman was appointed energy minister, a post the president had kept for himself during the first 19 months of his administration. Odein Ajumogobia remains junior petroleum minister. The appointments, already approved by the Senate, come nearly two months after Yar'Adua fired 20 cabinet members to begin his reshuffle. The drawn-out reshuffle has heightened uncertainty for foreign investors and brought government business to a virtual standstill. Godswill Orubebe, previously the minister of special duties, was picked to head the newly created Niger Delta ministry. He will have the challenging task of improving security in the oil-rich delta, the heartland of the country's oil and gas sector. Local officials from Nigeria's two biggest foreign oil producers, Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil, this week called on the government to beef up security in the delta amid an unprecedented rise in piracy and crude oil theft, known as bunkering. At a meeting between oil executives and government officials on Tuesday, Shell's head of regional external affairs, Noble Pepple, highlighted a "serious security problem" in the Isoko area of Delta State and the Bonny area of Rivers State -- where Shell was forced to close the Soku gas plant after condensate thieves sabotaged the plant's pipelines. "Isoko area is where we engaged in major gas production and the entire area is taken over by bunkerers," Pepple told the local press. "We have removed over 100 hundred bunkering points. The bunkering activities in the area could cause fires and the impact will be very devastating," he said. Pepple said three gas plants have been closed at Sogun, Obed and Otorogun because of fears about security, as they are not receiving any backup from security agencies. "What we are asking from the government is better policing," he said. "If we have an area mapped out for patrolling by the law enforcement agents, it will be better." The closure of the Soku gas plant earlier this month took out 40% of the feedstock for the Nigeria LNG (NLNG) plant on Bonny Island. Shell and NLNG had to declare force majeure on deliveries from the plant, which supplies about 10% of the world's LNG. Similarly, Charles Ndiomu, head of government public relations for Mobil Nigeria, said the company has been unable to distribute gas to plants in the southeast because of the security situation. "The entire Mobil production in Nigeria is under threat of shutdown because of insecurity," he was quoted as saying. "Security is going to be an issue, and if this continues, we will continue to have challenges of distributing gas." Staff and wire reports
