Oil pipeline bombed in Nigeria
2009-01-03 23:03
Lagos - Saboteurs blew up an oil pipeline
operated by Italy's Agip in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta late
on Friday, the military said on Saturday.
Brigadier-General Wuyep Rimtip, commander of the joint
military taskforce in the western Niger Delta, said the pipeline
had been attacked between the villages of Odimodi and Ogulagha
in Delta state.
Agip officials were not immediately available to comment and
it was not clear if there was any impact on production.
"It was not a militant attack, it was saboteurs because they
used dynamite to blow up the pipeline. We have reported it to
Agip," Rimtip told Reuters.
He said the pipeline ran through an area whose ownership was
disputed by communities living in Odimodi and Ogulagha.
Attacks on pipelines and industry installations in the Niger
Delta by militants demanding a fairer share of the profits from
the region's natural wealth have cut the country's oil
production by around a fifth over the past three years.
Nigeria is currently pumping around 2 million barrels per
day, making it the world's eighth biggest exporter.
The line between militancy and criminality in the creeks of
the Niger Delta is blurred.
Pipelines are frequently ruptured by gangs engaged in a
multi-million-dollar trade in stolen oil. The crude is
transported on barges to tankers waiting off Nigeria's coast,
before being mixed in with legitimate cargo and sold on the
international market.