Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Small Black Cloud on the Horizon

I got a warning message from Leo this morning, and verified it online tonight. It is possible that Leo's return will not happen as planned...it may be delayed by a day or two.

The news story that explains the problem is titled Nigeria Oil Strike Looming and describes details of a planned strike in the country by blue- and white-collar oil workers alike. There are two reasons this could affect Leo's travel plans. First, unions in Nigeria very often honor strikes of other groups. It is quite conceivable that the airline workers will strike in sympathy. The other reason is that the "airline" workers at Leo's end of the travel zone ARE oil workers. So, at the moment I am thinking that Leo has about a 50/50 chance of coming home on the day he is scheduled to, but an 80/20 chance of coming home within a couple of days of the target. I am not looking forward to a delay, but can deal with it if it comes.

Now I'm getting ready to ask Leo about another section of the article that he did NOT happen to mention to me. It says, "While pipeline explosions are sometimes the result of illegal tapping, witnesses said the explosion near the Escravos Terminal was the result of sabotage by armed groups operating in the delta." Um...Leo...what explosion?

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