Militants have again attacked a crude oil pipeline in the restive Niger Delta region.
This time a major pipeline operated by Italy’s ENI, Agip was attacked in Nembe, Bayelsa State.
The incident occurred on Saturday.
“The Bayelsa State Government has condemned in its entirety the attack on a trunk line belonging to Agip (ENI) by (a) new militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers,” it said in a statement. Bayelsa lies in the Delta region.
The attacks follow hits on Chevron’s Estravos pipeline, and another on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation pipelines, earlier this week.
Before the incident the militant group in southern Nigeria, the Niger Delta Avengers threatened what it termed “something big”.
The Nembe pipeline is said to carry the bonny light crude exported by Royal Dutch Shell, though the company is yet to make any official statement on the incident.
The Niger Delta Avengers, a new group of militants in the Niger Delta, had announced on Twitter earlier on Saturday that it had hit the Nembe pipeline.
The militants had posted a warning on Twitter that reads: “Watch out something big is about to happen and it will shock the whole world”.
Nigeria’s oil output has fallen to a 20-year low due to attacks on pipelines in the southern swamps, home to much of its hydrocarbon resources, which have compounded the impact of low oil prices on Africa’s largest economy.
Shell declared force majeure on Bonny Light loadings after a previous attack on the Nembe creek trunk pipeline, but some exports have continued with delays caused by repair work.
In the past few weeks, the militant group has launched multiple attacks on oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta region.
The group is demanding a sovereign nation of the Niger Delta people.
The group said its aim is to cripple Nigeria’s economy while demanding the secession of the Niger-Delta region.
Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Ibe Kachikwu has said that stakeholders from the Niger Delta region and the Government have resolved to work together to stop the attacks.
Following the attacks, Nigeria has responded by moving in army reinforcements but British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond said President Muhammadu Buhari needed to deal with the root causes of the conflict. He said a military confrontation could end in disaster.
Governor of Bayelsa state, Henry Dickson has also urged Nigeria’s federal government to act with caution when dealing with militants in the restive Niger Delta region.
A Bayelsa spokesman said later the Nembe pipelines had not been hit. Nengi James, a chairman of the Nembe Oil and Gas Committee that liaises with oil firms, said vandals had targeted the Agip pipeline, which had been attacked before.
