Raid on Abole oil exploration facility

The raid on Abole oil exploration facility occurred in the early morning of 24 April 2007, when insurgents of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) attacked the oil exploration facility in the town of Abole, 30 km northwest of Degehabur, in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. The facility was operated by Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau (ZPEB), a subsidiary of the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) which was contracted on behalf of Malaysian oil and gas multinational Petronas.

Background
Before the raid on Abole oil refinery, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) had made explicit threats against foreign companies working with the Ethiopian government to exploit the natural resources of the Ogaden/Somali Region.

Just after the full scale Ethiopian invasion of Somalia began in December 2006, the ONLF issued a statement declaring its solidarity with the anti-Ethiopian insurgency in Somalia, and along with other armed groups in Ethiopia - escalated the insurgency in the Ogaden in response to the invasion.

Raid
Chinese oil workers present estimated about 200 fighters participated in the attack. 65 to 74 Ethiopian troops were killed in the attack, along with nine Chinese workers on site at the time. The ONLF stated that the attack had been launched to prevent the 'colonialist' Ethiopian government from exploiting the Ogaden regions natural resources. The day of the attack a spokesman for the ONLF in London announced: "'We have warned the Chinese government and the Ethiopian government that... they don't have a right to drill there...Unfortunately nobody heeds our warning and we have to defend our territorial integrity.'"The Abole attack came just as Ethiopian forces across the border in the Somali capital Mogadishu were involved in fierce fighting with insurgents. The Ethiopian government claimed Islamic Courts Union fighters fought alongside the ONLF during the attack on the refinery.