Unidentified militants have attacked an oil pipeline operated by a local affiliate of Shell in Nigeria’s restive Niger Delta region. Residents say the incident occurred at about 1:00 am, in the early hours of Sunday near Odimodi community in Delta State.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the blast at the Trans Ramos Pipeline near Odimodi, operated by Shell’s joint venture SPDC. Shell said the line was closed for repairs.
Recurring attacks on oil and gas facilities by militants in the Niger Delta region has cut the country’s crude production — which stood at 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) at the start of the year — to around 700,000 bpd.
Endoro New-world, a local, said the blast shook nearby homes and created a “ball of fire”. “At sunrise, a group from the community in company of the SPDC surveillance team was able to locate the site of the blast,” he said.
Community leader Godspower Gbenekama also said residents heard a loud explosion, adding that there had been an oil spill.
Shell issued a statement on Monday in which it said it was “investigating the reported incident”. “The Trans Ramos Pipeline (TRP) transports oil to Forcados Terminal and has been shut since the leak on the Forcados export line on February 14, 2016,” it said.
Even though no one has come out to accept blame for the attack, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) a militant group in the region has claimed a string of attacks against the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation as well as oil majors Shell, Chevron, Exxon and Eni since February.
The attacks have slashed output at a time when Nigeria is grappling with low global crude prices which have hammered government revenues, weakening the naira currency and pushing up inflation to near 11-year highs.
