Niger Delta Avengers on Tuesday said it had attacked a Chevron pipeline as
a warning to international oil groups not to repair damaged infrastructure
pending talks with militants.
The attack comes just days before the militants are set to talk with
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s government about ending the renewed
sabotage strangling oil production and hammering the economy.
“Today at about 3:45am our strike team 06 took down Chevron Escravos
export pipeline at Escravos offshore,” an NDA statement said.
“This action is to further warn all international oil companies that when
we warn that there should be no repairs pending negotiation/dialogue with
the people of the Niger Delta, it means there should be no repairs,” said
the group’s spokesman Mudoch Agbinibo.
US oil firm Chevron, the operator of the pipeline, was not available for
comment.
Ofe Nene, a community leader from Ugborodo, confirmed the attack, saying
the “blast occurred last night at an offshore location.”
A security officer told AFP there had been an oil spill following the
incident.
“For now, we can’t confirm if it was as a result of militant attack or
rupture on the pipeline, but all I can say is that there is a spill in the
area from a damaged pipeline belonging to Chevron Nigeria Limited.”
A burgeoning number of militant groups are sabotaging Nigeria’s oil
infrastructure in their quest for a bigger cut of the country’s massive
oil wealth for the Niger delta people in the southern swamplands.
The Avengers, blamed for slashing the country’s production from 2.2
million barrels per day to a low of 1.4 earlier this year, announced a
ceasefire in August by accepting a government truce.
But then another group, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate (NDGJM),
stepped up its attacks.
President Buhari’s government is scheduled to hold peace talks with the
militants and prominent Niger delta leaders in Abuja on October 31 to end
the unrest.
Nigeria, which depends on oil sales for 70 per cent of its government
revenue, is struggling to fight its way out of a recession as a result of
the globally low price of crude and the ongoing attacks.