afrol News, 28 July - Nigeria's militant group MEND, based in the oil-producing Niger Delta, has claimed an attack today on two major crude oil pipelines in Rivers states, southern Nigeria belonging to Royal Dutch Shell.

An overnight attack came in less than a week after the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) threatened to blast oil pipes in the Niger Delta to disprove claims it had received protection money worth US$ 12 million from government for creeks in the region.

MEND spokesman Jomo Gbomo said the blast on the pipelines was in line with their pledge made last Wednesday to attacks oil lines in 30 days, saying more attacks are yet to come in the Delta.

The head of the state-run oil firm Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was quoted in Nigerian newspapers last week as saying the company had paid militant groups to protect facilities in delta, then it later refuted media reports saying it was quoted out of context and money was given to the local community, not militants. MEND leaders also dissociated from the statement.

The first pipeline attacked is located in Kula, which has been previously sabotaged and the second is in Rumuekpe, both belonging to Shell Company.

Since 2006, bomb attacks on pipelines in the Niger Delta have cut oil production by 25 percent and disrupted supplies from the world's eighth biggest oil exporter and helped push the global energy prices to record highs.

Shell, which operates onshore in Nigeria in a joint venture with state oil firm NNPC, said it was investigating an apparent attack on the Nembe Creek crude oil pipeline, but could not confirm whether any production was affected. "We are conducting an over-fly to determine what actually happened," said spokeswoman Caroline Wittgen.

Last month, world oil prices rose to US$ 137 dollars a barrel, following the closure of Royal Dutch Shell's Bonga oilfield producing over 200,000 barrels per day in Nigeria after militant attacks in one of its major crude pipelines.

Nigeria has slipped to position two after Angola as Africa's main oil exporter, due to relentless violence in onshore and offshore fields in the creeks of the Niger Delta.

The Nigerian government says it acknowledges a need for development in the impoverished Niger Delta - which has seen its environment destroyed and received very little of national oil revenues - but it considers the militants to be criminals who profit from highly lucrative theft of crude oil, which is drained off from pipelines and shipped overseas for resale.

The Nigerian government has appealed for international support to curb oil smuggling which has proven to be a source of stability in oil producing region, as crude is traded for arms.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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