An armed group seeking to secede from Nigeria, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), continued their attacks against oil pipelines in the west African nation on Friday with the bombing of a conduit controlled by Eni's Agip subsidiary.
Eni has yet to provide an immediate response to the attack, which comes just a day after the attack against an oil pipeline run by state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and a day after Shell Nigeria's decision to shut down activity on its Trans Niger Pipeline following the discovery of a leak.
Shell's pipeline suspension is expected to cut some 130,000 barrels per day of crude oil export at a cost of around US$6.7 million daily. The cause of the leak has yet to be made public.
The NDA attributed themselves as the perpetrators of the Eni-pipeline incident that took place in Bayelsa State of the Niger Delta region in the early hours of Friday. The NDA posted on their Twitter account early Friday morning its claim to have blown up the "Obi Obi Brass trunk line," without providing further details.
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Desmond Agu, commander of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps in Bayelsa State, subsequently confirmed the attack took place around 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. on Friday, also noting that oil spilled without a fire occurring.
Eni has been one of numerous oil entities targeted in an NDA campaign to economically sabotage Nigeria and press for its own state separate from the oil-rich nation, forcing foreign companies to curtail production and evacuate personnel from the Niger Delta.
An NDA tweet following the pipeline bombing on Friday boasted how it was "good" that foreign refineries allegedly halted buying oil produced from the Niger Delta area. The group promised to "inform international communities when we are open for business."
By Erwin Cifuentes for Oilprice.com
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Erwin Cifuentes is a Contributing Editor for Southern Pulse Info where he focuses on politics, economics and security issues in Latin America and the Caribbean.… More