Militants blow up another oil pipeline in Nigeria

The Niger Delta Avengers militant group early Thursday said its fighters blew up another oil pipeline belonging to state-run oil firm, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, in the southeastern state of Akwa Ibom.

In an electronic statement, the group said the oil facility was blown up at 4:00 a.m. Thursday local time.

The oil facility was destroyed barely 72 hours after the militant group gave conditions to ceasefire and embrace dialogue with the authorities.

In a statement on Monday by its spokesman, Mudoch Agbinigbo, the group said it would only agree to enter into dialogue with the government on issues affecting the region if the authorities promised to set up a framework for achieving the short, medium and long-term demands of the local people.

It warned multinational oil corporations to desist from further fixing of oil and gas installations that were earlier destroyed by its fighters and threatened to attack the interest of oil corporation and international refineries operators that bring in vessels to the Niger Delta territory "without reapplying the proceeds toward any development in the region since 1958."

Due to vicious attacks on oil and gas installations by militants in the Niger Delta, major oil firms operating in the West African country had either declared force majeure or cut down production of crude oil in Nigeria.

source : xinhua