Gunmen attacked two oil facilities operated by Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria’s restive south, a private security official said on Tuesday.
It was not known if anyone was injured in the early-morning attack, nor if oil production was affected. Military and Shell officials were not immediately available for comment.
The security official said that a local militant leader claimed responsibility for the attack in a letter and threatened further violence. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of company prohibitions on dealings with the media.
The region’s main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), denied any involvement in the attack, even though it had called off a month-long ceasefire almost three weeks ago. In an e-mail to the Associated Press a spokesperson for Mend said it knows the group responsible and ”the reason they threatened the facility”.
Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer but three years of militant attacks on the industry have kept the country’s daily crude production at about 25% under its estimated capacity of 2,5-million barrels a day.
The militants say they are battling to force the federal government to devote more oil-industry funds to the southern region, which remains deeply poor despite its great natural bounty.
The government says the militants are organised criminals engaging in the lucrative overseas trade in crude oil by illegally tapping Nigeria’s vast pipeline network. — Sapa-AP