(Reuters) – The main militant group in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta said on Monday it had attacked two major crude oil pipelines belonging to Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research), giving support to world oil prices.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), whose campaign of violence has caused the shutdown of around a fifth of Nigeria’s oil since early 2006, said its members conducted the attacks early Monday morning in the delta.
“In keeping with our pledge to resume pipeline attacks within the next thirty days, detonation engineers backed by heavily armed fighters … sabotaged two major pipelines in Rivers state of Nigeria,” the group said in an e-mailed statement.
Shell said it was investigating an apparent attack on its Nembe Creek crude oil pipeline, but could not confirm whether any production was affected.
Industry sources said about 130,000 barrels per day of crude oil flows through the pipeline to the Bonny export terminal.
U.S. crude oil prices CLc1 found support from the attacks, rising to near $124 a barrel in early trading on Monday.
Last week, MEND warned it would target oil pipelines to prove it did not receive payments from the government to end its attacks on the oil sector in the world’s eighth largest exporter.
The head of the state-run oil firm NNPC was quoted in Nigerian newspapers last week as saying the company had paid militant groups $12 million to protect facilities in the delta.
NNPC later said it was quoted out of context and the money was given to the local community, not militants.