BEVERLY HILLS, May 27, (THEWILL) – The Niger Delta Avengers militant group, on Friday, said its fighters have blown up a large gas and crude pipeline operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) near Warri and protected by soldiers.
This is the second sabotage in two days following an assault on Chevron infrastructure on Wednesday.
“At 11:45pm on Thursday @NDAvengers blew up other #NNPC Gas and Crude trunkline close to Warri,” it said on its twitter handle.
This is the same pipeline that was attacked in February and May this year and which provides gas to Lagos for power generation.
Although, the spokesman for the joint military task force in the area, Isa Ado, could not be immediately confirm the attack, security sources and locals in the area confirmed the attack to THEWILL adding that the attack on the crude pipeline caused an oil spill.
The group had rejected dialogue, saying it was out to secure self-rule for people of Niger Delta and described the stakeholders’ meeting as an insult to the people of the oil-rich region and threatened more devious actions.
“The Niger Delta stakeholder’s meeting is an insult to the people of Niger Delta. What we need is a Sovereign State not pipeline Contracts,” it tweeted.
“To the IOC’s, Indigenous Oil Companies and Nigeria Military. Watch out something big is about to happen and it will shock the whole world.”
Last week, Chevron’s Makaraba crude oil line was attacked on the offshore Okan manifold in the region.
The attack followed previous ones on the company’s facilities at Abiteye, Utunana and Makaraba platforms in Warri South-West area of Delta State resulting in the loss of over 40,000 barrels of oil per day.
Story by David Oputah
