A gunman in Nigeria shot at a helicopter travelling between oil facilities operated by Italy’s Agip (ENI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) in the Niger Delta on Wednesday but the aircraft landed safely, the military said.
Lieutenant-Colonel Nkana Efik, commander of the military taskforce in Bayelsa state, said the helicopter was travelling between the Ogbainbiri and Tebidaba oil flow stations operated by Agip when it was hit by a single shot.
“We are trying to trace where the shot came from. We are now talking to the pilot,” Efik told Reuters.
The Niger Delta, a network of mangrove creeks home to Africa’s biggest oil and gas industry, has been plagued by oil pipeline bombings and the kidnapping of oil workers. Attacks on helicopters are not unprecedented but are comparatively rare.
The Tebidaba flow station and its pipelines, which ship crude oil to the Brass River export terminal, have been attacked several times in the past few years.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the region’s main militant group, warned this month of attacks on Italian firms including Agip because of what it said was an Italian offer to supply two attack boats to the military.
Italy said it had offered cooperation and assistance to the Nigerian government in fighting drug trafficking and crime but that there had been no specific offer of military vessels.
Nigerian security forces repelled an attack by gunmen on Agip’s Twon Brass oil terminal, also in Bayelsa, on Saturday night. Oil production at the facility was not affected.
– Reuters