Niger Delta Avenger claims attack on Chevron pipeline

Niger Delta Avengers on Tuesday said
it had attacked a Chevron pipeline as a
warning to international oil groups
not to repair damaged infrastructure
pending talks with militants.
The attack comes just days before the
militants are set to talk with Nigerian
President Muhammadu Buhari’s
government about ending the renewed
sabotage strangling oil production and
hammering the economy.
“Today at about 3:45am our strike
team 06 took down Chevron Escravos
export pipeline at Escravos offshore,”
an NDA statement said.
“This action is to further warn all
international oil companies that when
we warn that there should be no
repairs pending negotiation/dialogue
with the people of the Niger Delta, it
means there should be no repairs,”
said the group’s spokesman Mudoch
Agbinibo.
US oil firm Chevron, the operator of
the pipeline, was not available for
comment.
Ofe Nene, a community leader from
Ugborodo, confirmed the attack,
saying the “blast occurred last night at
an offshore location.”
A security officer told AFP there had
been an oil spill following the
incident.
“For now, we can’t confirm if it was as
a result of militant attack or rupture
on the pipeline, but all I can say is that
there is a spill in the area from a
damaged pipeline belonging to
Chevron Nigeria Limited.”
A burgeoning number of militant
groups are sabotaging Nigeria’s oil
infrastructure in their quest for a
bigger cut of the country’s massive oil
wealth for the Niger delta people in
the southern swamplands.
The Avengers, blamed for slashing the
country’s production from 2.2 million
barrels per day to a low of 1.4 earlier
this year, announced a ceasefire in
August by accepting a government
truce.
But then another group, the Niger
Delta Greenland Justice Mandate
(NDGJM), stepped up its attacks.
President Buhari’s government is
scheduled to hold peace talks with the
militants and prominent Niger delta
leaders in Abuja on October 31 to end
the unrest.
Nigeria, which depends on oil sales for
70 per cent of its government revenue,
is struggling to fight its way out of a
recession as a result of the globally low
price of crude and the ongoing attacks.