Nigerian militants said on Sunday they had resumed attacks on Africa's biggest oil and gas industry, blowing up two pipelines in response to gunboat and helicopter strikes by the security forces.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it had sabotaged two oil and gas pipelines near to Escravos which supply the 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) Kaduna refinery in northern Nigeria, shut down for maintenance in November. There was no immediate independent confirmation.
"We have begun nibbling again at the oil infrastructure. Already, two major trunk pipe and gas lines which were recently repaired have been blown up," MEND said in an e-mail to media.
A private security contractor said there were also reports of an explosion overnight at a manifold operated by Royal Dutch Shell's local unit in neighbouring Bayelsa state. Shell said it was checking but had no immediate confirmation. Insecurity in the Niger Delta means the OPEC member's oil output, currently around 1.9 million bpd, is running at less than two-thirds capacity, curbing foreign revenues and putting an additional strain on government finances.
The military has said it cannot "fold its hands" while the country's mainstay industry is under threat. It carried out strikes on Friday against a major militant camp after the hijacking of two oil vessels and kidnapping of crew members, attacks on its soldiers and threats to oil companies to evacuate staff.
OIL INFRASTRUCTURE EXPOSED:
The army said it had rescued nine Filipino and four Nigerian hostages in the operation and destroyed the camp belonging to Government Tompolo, a leader of a faction of MEND known as the Federated Niger Delta Ijaw Communities (FNDIC).
The rescued crew members told reporters on Saturday that two Filipinos were killed and at least five others wounded by crossfire. MEND said Tompolo had survived the assault and that his fighters had relocated to another camp.
"FNDIC fighters will likely counter-attack Nigerian army positions and target pipelines and flow stations in Delta state in order to press the Nigerian government to rein in its armed forces," risk consultancy Stratfor said on Friday. "Since oil production...is the country's economic lifeline, attacking nearly impossible-to-defend oil infrastructure is MEND's ultimate defensive tactic and most effective means of forcing the government to negotiate peace terms."
The army has said its forces will continue their offensive to flush militants out of the creeks. MEND said it had moved Matthew Maguire, a British oil worker held hostage since last September, to Delta state, the scene of the latest fighting. Maguire had previously been held at a camp in neighbouring Rivers state.
The group has in the past used foreigners as "human shields" in an attempt to discourage the military from using force. MEND has frequently carried out pipeline bombings and kidnapped oil workers in recent years. But it has failed to carry out any attacks as spectacular as those of early 2006 when it first burst onto the scene, knocking out almost a quarter of Nigerian output in a matter of weeks.
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