Again, Niger Delta militants blow up NNPC pipelines

Barely 24 hours after it attacked Chevron’s main
power line at the Escravos terminal, the Niger
Delta Avengers, on Thursday night, blew up
crude oil and gas pipelines operated by the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
around Batan community in Warri South West
Local Government Area of Delta State.

Local residents told Saturday PUNCH that
multiple explosions were heard, a situation they
said threw people of the area into serious panic.
A senior military officer confirmed the incident
to one of our correspondents.

The NNPC on Friday said its pipeline
transporting crude from Escravos to Warri had
been damaged.

The Escravos-Warri pipeline, which was re-
commissioned in April, was attacked early in the
year and last week.

When contacted by one of our correspondents,
the spokesperson for the NNPC, Mr. Garba-
Deen Mohammed, said, “The NNPC pipeline,
bringing crude from Escravos to Warri, was the
one that was affected. But we don’t know the
extent of the damage. Our engineers are right
now trying to assess the extent of the damage.”

The Niger Delta Avengers had on Friday
morning via its Twitter feed said, “At 11:45pm
on Thursday, Niger Delta Avengers blew up
other NNPC gas and crude trunkline close to
Warri. Pipeline that was heavily guarded by
military.

“To the IOCs, indigenous oil companies and
Nigerian military, watch out, something big is
about to happen and it will shock the whole
world,” the group said in another tweet.
It added, “The Niger Delta stakeholders’ meeting
is an insult to the people of Niger Delta. What
we need is a Sovereign State not pipeline
contracts.”

The group had on Thursday claimed
responsibility for the attack on Chevron’s main
power feed at the Escravos terminal, which shut
down the US firm’s onshore operations.

The Avengers, who gave oil firms until end of
the month to leave, said they wanted
independence for the Niger Delta, and have
intensified attacks in recent weeks, pushing the
nation’s oil output to its lowest in more than 20
years.

Currently, four Nigerian crude export grades —
Qua Iboe, Bonny Light, Brass River and Forcados
— are under force majeure.

All of these grades except for Qua Iboe are
under force majeure as a direct result of the
militant attacks.

The PUNCH reported on Friday that the Federal
Government had met with a select group of
militants from the restive Niger Delta as a
result of the ongoing attacks on oil pipelines in
the region.

Source: The Punch