Militants claim oil attack
2008-09-17 08:38
Lagos - Nigeria's main militant group said on Wednesday it attacked another oil installation in a fifth day of violence to hit the southern petroleum-producing region.
A senior leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta told The Associated Press that the group's fighters hit a pipeline-interchange station run by the local unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC.
The leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid capture by the authorities, said the fighters chased away military personnel at the installation in southern Rivers State and destroyed the so-called flow station. Officials for Shell weren't immediately available for comment.
In recent days, violence has flared across Nigeria's restive Niger Delta oil region, with a series of rare ground battles between militants and Nigerian troops that previously have tended to avoid confronting one another in the region's vast system of rivers and creeks.
On Saturday, the military task force charged with calming the region launched a deadly attack on a militant base camp with landing craft, helicopters and airplanes.
Civil war
The militants have since retaliated by sending raiding parties from their camps deep in the mangrove swamps to target military personnel and oil infrastructure.
At least nine militants and several members of the armed forces have been killed, along with civilian casualties.
On Sunday the militants declared that the latest clashes with the military meant the region has slipped into a state of war.
The militants say they have been agitating for the last three years to force the federal government to send more oil-industry revenues to their areas, which remain deeply poor despite five decades of crude production.
Their attacks on oil infrastructure have trimmed nearly one quarter of Nigeria's daily production, helping send oil prices to all-time highs in international markets.
A full-blown civil war, however, would be a nightmare scenario for the oil industry, since large-scale battles could leave the country's network of wells, pipelines and export terminals in tatters and insecurity would prevent repairs. Some oil industry officials say that daily production could fall quickly to zero.
- AP