Nigeria: MEND Attacks Oil Pipelines, Cut Output

Nigerian Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta armed militant. The Federal Government has launched an offensive against the people of this oil-producing region on May 13.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

Nigerian rebels attack oil pipelines, cut output

Wed Jul 8, 2009 8:20pm GMT
By Randy Fabi

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's most prominent militant group sabotaged oil pipelines operated by Shell and Agip on Wednesday, further cutting production in Africa's biggest energy producer.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said gunmen attacked the pipelines in two separate raids near Nembe creek in Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta.

Attacks against the OPEC member's oil sector have become a near daily occurrence since President Umaru Yar'Adua announced an amnesty offer two weeks ago.

"The plague of sabotage descended heavily on major Shell and Agip crude trunk lines in Bayelsa state," MEND said in a statement. The pipelines connect to Agip's Brass and Royal Dutch Shell's Bonny crude oil export terminals.

Agip's parent company Eni said the attack caused a production loss of about 24,000 barrels per day, while Shell said it was still looking into the report.

A military spokesman said soldiers foiled an attempted attack on an Agip-operated oil well in Tebidaba in Bayelsa state early Wednesday. It was not clear if the incident was related to the pipeline attacks.

Shell, Agip and U.S. oil firm Chevron have cut output by around 300,000 barrels per day in the last six weeks because of the latest militant violence.

The disruption to supplies has provided some limited support for global oil prices.

FOREIGN HOSTAGES

MEND has sabotaged pipelines, bombed oil facilities and kidnapped foreign workers following the military's biggest offensive in the region for years in late May.

Militants were still holding six foreign crew members hostage, two days after their chemical tanker was hijacked off the coast of Escravos in the Niger Delta.

"The crew are fine. They have just been relocated deeper into the swamps," MEND said.

Hoping to put an end to the unrest, Yar'Adua said last week he would offer a 60-day amnesty to militants and criminals in the Niger Delta beginning August 6.

But MEND, a loose network of varied factions, has publicly dismissed the amnesty offer.

Yar'Adua on Wednesday appointed Timi Alaibe, former managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, to be chief negotiator for the amnesty programme.

In a separate incident, gunmen kidnapped five Chinese fishermen off Cameroon's Bakassi peninsula earlier this week, a security source said on Wednesday, and local rebels blamed MEND militants from Nigeria's Niger Delta for the raid.

MEND denied involvement in the kidnapping, the latest in a series indicating that insecurity is spreading from the Delta.

(Additional reporting by Stephen Jewkes in Milan and Felix Onuah in L'Aquila; Editing by Charles Dick)