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Nigerian militants attack three Shell oil sites

Other News Materials 21 June 2009 19:13 (UTC +04:00)

Nigeria's main militant group said on Sunday it had attacked three oil installations belonging to Royal Dutch Shell in the Niger Delta, widening a month-old offensive against Africa's biggest energy industry, Reuters reported.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in an emailed statement it had attacked Shell pipelines at Adamakiri and Kula, both in Rivers state in the eastern Niger Delta, in the early hours of Sunday morning.

It said hours later it had also attacked what it described as part of an offshore oilfield in shallow water further west, saying that the structure was "engulfed in fire".

Shell said it was investigating reports of attacks against its installations at three locations and was carrying out fly-overs to try to assess any impact on output or the extent of any environmental damage from potential spillage.

A senior industry source said the third attack was not thought to have been on an offshore installation as MEND claimed, but on a facility located in the mangrove creeks, where pipelines and equipment run across broad stretches of water.

"It's the same area where they did the two other hits this morning," the source said, asking not to be named.

The attacks are the first to strike Rivers state, the easternmost of the three main states in the Niger Delta, since the militants launched their latest campaign of sabotage following a military offensive in the western delta last month.

Persistent attacks by MEND over the past three years have cut oil output in the OPEC member, the world's eighth biggest crude oil exporter, to less than two thirds of its installed capacity of 3 million barrels per day (bpd).

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