Armed men attacked a Total SA oil pumping station in Nigeria in an overnight raid that left three security guards dead and shut down the facility, a company official said Thursday.
The Total official in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja spoke anonymously because the information had not yet been cleared for public release.
He said the pumping station in the Obagi oil field, which normally produces about 50,000 barrels a day, had been shut down. He said he did not have further details.
Two private security contractors had previously reported an attack by armed men on the Total SA oil installation in southern Rivers state. They also spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
It was not immediately clear how many attackers were involved, or if they occupied the facility or took hostages.
Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer and the fifth-largest U.S. supplier, has seen its typical oil production cut by a quarter this year by a series of attacks and hostage-takings by militants � some seeking ransoms and others political influence.
On Monday, militants detonated two car bombs at oil company compounds in the southern river delta region that produces most of Nigeria’s crude.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta claimed responsibility, demanding the government free a group of militant leaders. No injuries were reported.
The group has been holding four foreign oil workers hostage since early this month, having captured them in an attack on an oil export station belonging to Agip, a subsidiary of Italian oil firm Eni SpA.
The group has said the three Italians and one Lebanese man will not be released until Nigerian authorities free Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, a militant leader on trial on treason charges, and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the former governor of a southern state, on trial on money-laundering charges.