Oil thieves caused a fire last week on a Nigerian pipeline owned by Italian oil firm Agip , a government official said on Friday.
Agip, subsidiary of multinational energy firm Eni, was not immediately available for comment.
“The people were trying to open a crude loading point and it caught fire, the facility is owned by Agip,” said Iyenimi Sling, a government official of Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta.
“The incident occurred on Wednesday and lasted to the wee hours of Thursday.” The trunkline affected feeds crude to the Obama flowstation, he said.