Mail & Guardian Online
THE SMART NEWS SOURCE | Feb 09 2010 19:14 | LAST UPDATED Feb 09 2010 19:14
News | Africa | West Africa

Nigerian rebels attack Shell pipeline

LAGOS, NIGERIA Sep 16 2008 15:42
comments 0 comments | Post your comment


Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell on Tuesday confirmed an overnight attack on one of its pipelines in southern Nigeria.

"We can confirm that a section of the Greater Port Harcourt Swamp Line at Bakana, Rivers state, was attacked last night [Monday]," Shell spokesperson Precious Okolobo said, without giving any further details.

Earlier on Tuesday, a Nigerian rebel group and the army gave conflicting versions of the incident.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) said it had blown up and destroyed the pipeline in the latest attack in its "oil war" on Western firms.

"A major crude oil pipeline at Bakana Front in Degema Local Government Area ... was destroyed with high explosives by Mend detonation engineers backed by heavily armed fighters," Mend said in an email statement to the media.

Mend has already attacked a Shell flow station since declaring its war on Sunday. It attacked a Chevron facility hours before the declaration.

Bakana is in Rivers state, the heart of the oil region. The two earlier attacks on Shell's Alakiri flow station and on a Chevron facility at Robertkiri are in the same state.

A Nigerian army officer, however, said Monday night's attack on the Shell installation was repelled.

"Soldiers sighted the militants in time and confronted them so they dropped their explosives, which detonated," said Lieutenant Colonel Musa Sagir, spokesperson for the unit of the Nigerian army tasked with policing the Niger Delta. -- Sapa-AFP

CONTINUES BELOW
TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE

Related Articles

Tags

Organisations

Comments

You must be logged in to comment. Log in or sign up to comment
click here to log in

M&G Online Comment Guidelines In Brief

  • No hate speech;
  • No racist, sexist or homophobic remarks;
  • Keep it short;
  • Keep it on topic;
  • Show respect to all;
  • We reserve the right to remove or delete any comment without notice or reason.

Click here for the full Comment Guidelines

Advertising Links



LATEST ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION
POPULAR ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION
Kalahari.net
2,3-million titles to choose from.
iPod nano 16GB - Black, Was R2,499.00 Now R2,299.00! Save R200!
46 000 DVDs and Blu-Ray on sale now!
100s of new releases now in stock. Get the new Sade & Bon Jovi albums.
Widest toy range and unbeatable prices!




Follow the Mail & Guardian on Twitter!


Direct message us on our mailandguardian account to chat to the M&G Online team.
THIS WEEK'S PAPER

Advertisements


Advertising links