2nd UPDATE:Nigeria Militants Say They Attacked Shell Pipelines Tagged with: Crude Oil
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES (Updates with additional statement by militants, other details.) IBADAN, Nigeria (Dow Jones)Two major oil pipelines belonging to Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) have been attacked in different locations by a militant group in Nigeria's southeast Rivers state, a spokesman for the group said Sunday. Jomo Gbomo of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said in a statement that the Shell pipelines located at Adamakiri and Kula were attacked in the early hours Sunday. He said the Adamakiri pipeline was "pounded" at about 2:30 a.m. local time, before the Kula pipeline was attacked 30 minutes later. Officials of Shell and the military in the Niger Delta were not immediately available to comment on the attacks. If both attacks are confirmed, it will be the second time MEND fighters would have attacked and damaged Shell facilities in the Niger Delta in the past several days. MEND earlier in June claimed responsibility for the damage to Shell's TransForcados trunk line at Chamomile creek. Gbomo added in the statement that MEND had been reliably informed that the Chevron Corp. (CVX) airstrip in Escravos was used by the military "as staging area for the jet fighters and helicopter gunships used in the attacks and bombing of civilian communities in Gbaramatu kingdom of Delta state." He said Chevron "will pay a price in double measure" for allowing its facilities to be "used in committing atrocities against the host communities where it drills oil and gas." He said Chevron had repeated "the same mistake" by Shell against communities of the Ogoni. The Ogonis had prohibited Shell from carrying on oil exploration in their area in the Niger Delta due to alleged "Shell atrocities against Ogoni people and environmental degradation." Earlier this month, MEND attacked and blew up oil wells owned by Chevron in southern Delta state. The movement said it attacked Chevron's Makaraba oil well 3 and 5, along with its trunk line and gas lifts, and the Otunana oil well 1, along with its gas lift trunklines. MEND and other militant groups in the Niger Delta have since February 2006 kidnapped local and foreign oil workers and damaged several oil and gas pipelines. They have succeeded in cutting Nigeria's oil export by around 1 million barrels, according to official estimates. The militants said they are fighting for a bigger share of the huge oil wealth from the region. MEND has spurned President Umaru Yar'Adua's offer of an amnesty for militants who laid down their arms and embraced peace. -By Obafemi Oredein, For Dow Jones Newswires; 234-2-7510489
