Nigeria's main militant group on Monday threatened to extend its attacks to offshore oil facilities after sabotaging a Chevron-operated oil pumping station in the Niger Delta. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it attacked the Abiteye flow station early on Monday, the fifth militant attack claimed against the US energy company in Delta state in less than a month.
The military confirmed the attack, but said its security forces were able to secure the facility and force the retreat of dozens of suspected militants. "The hoodlums were overpowered by our troops and forced to flee," said Colonel Rabe Abubakar, spokesman for the military task force in the Niger Delta. The US oil major has already shut down its operations around Delta state after MEND's first pipeline attack on May 24, halting about 100,000 barrels per day of oil output in Africa's biggest oil and gas producer.