SAN FRANCISCO, June 03, (THEWILL) – Few days after resurgent militant group, Niger Delta Avengers tweeted that “something big is about to happen” in its onslaught against oil installations, the group appear to have step up its attacks, leaving major pipelines destroyed in the Niger Delta region.
NDA had earlier warned to retaliate against any invasion of Niger Delta communities by the military, which had since intensified surveillance around oil installations at the wake of Avengers’ onslaught and began a major manhunt for members of the group.
But early on Friday morning, the group said it had blown up two pipelines in separate incidents belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, and another one believed to be operated by Nigeria Agip Company, NAOC, in Brass, Bayelsa state.
The Forcados 48 inch Export Line belonging to SPDC was same pipeline blown up earlier in March which fed the Forcados Export Terminal. Industry sources said the pipeline had been repaired before the militant group struck it again on Friday morning.
THEWILL recalls that Shell had on February 21, 2016 declared force majeure on Forcados lines following the disruption in production caused by a spill on the Forcados Terminal subsea crude oil export pipeline. After its repairs, the members of NDA blew up the pipeline in March and warned against further repair work on the site until its demands are met.
The rebelling group in its tweet handle; @NDAvengers tweeted around 5:22am that; “At 3:00 am today @NDAvengers blow up the SPDC forcados 48″ Exportline. We warned SPDC not to go ahead with repair works but they refuse”.
The group also tweeted about the attack believed to be on Eni’s facility that; “At about 3:30am our (@NDAvengers ) strike team Blow up the Brass to Tebidaba Crude oil line in Bayelsa.. #BOOM”.
Story by Joe Ogbodu
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