Nigeria's most prominent militant group said on Wednesday it sabotaged oil pipelines operated by Shell and Agip, widening a six-week long offensive against Africa's biggest energy industry.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said gunmen attacked the pipelines in two separate attacks near Nembe creek in Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta.
Attacks against the Opec member's oil sector have become a near daily occurrence since President Umaru Yar'Adua announced an amnesty offer two weeks ago.
"The plague of sabotage descended heavily on major Shell and Agip crude trunk lines in Bayelsa state," MEND said in a statement. The pipelines connect to Agip's Brass and Royal Dutch Shell's Bonny crude oil export terminals. Shell and Agip officials said they were investigating the report.
A military spokesman said soldiers foiled an attempted attack on an Agip-operated oil well in Tebidaba in Bayelsa state early Wednesday. It was not clear if the incident was related to the pipeline attacks.
Shell, Agip and US oil firm Chevron have cut output by around 273,000 barrels per day in the last six weeks because of the latest militant violence. The disruption to supplies has provided some limited support for global oil prices.
MEND has sabotaged pipelines, bombed oil facilities and kidnapped foreign workers following the military's biggest offensive in the region for years in late May.
Militants were still holding six foreign crew members hostage, two days after their chemical tanker was hijacked off the coast of Escravos in the Niger Delta. "The crew are fine. They have just been relocated deeper into the swamps," MEND said.
Hoping to put an end to the unrest, Mr Yar'Adua said last week he would offer a 60-day amnesty to militants and criminals in the Niger Delta beginning August 6th. But MEND, a loose network of varied factions, has publicly dismissed the amnesty offer.
One of the group's key demands is the immediate release of its suspected leader Henry Okah, who is on trial for gun-running and treason and could face the death penalty. Yar'Adua ordered his interior minister last week to extend his clemency offer to Okah, but he has so far failed publicly to do so.
In a separate incident, gunmen kidnapped five Chinese fishermen off Cameroon's Bakassi peninsula earlier this week, a security source said on Wednesday, and local rebels blamed MEND militants from Nigeria's Niger Delta for the raid. MEND denied involvement in the kidnapping.
Reuters