The most prominent militant group in Nigeria's southern oil-producing region said Friday it had sabotaged a major oil supply pipeline belonging to Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in a statement that it had carried out the sabotage operation on Thursday evening in Rivers state.
The group also promised "many more" similar attacks to follow. The targetted pipeline was connected to the Bonny exports terminal - the largest in the country with a storage capacity of around seven million barrels of crude oil. Shell spokesman Tony Okonedo could not immediately confirm the attack.
"We have heard about the incident but we are still trying to confirm it," he told AFP. Shell, Nigeria's largest oil operator accounting for around half of the country's 2.1 million barrels per day output, has seen a wave of attacks on its facilities in recent months. MEND, which came to prominence early 2006 has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on Nigeria's oil industry and related sectors in the past two years.
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