Gunmen attacked an oilfield on Sunday in Nigeria’s southern Bayelsa State being guarded by soldiers after nine militants were killed by the army in the same area recently, an official said.
“The fighting is still raging in the afternoon,” a spokesman for the paramilitary Joint Task Force said, adding there were no reports of casualties thus far.
A navy spokesman told AFP there were no foreigners at the site at the time of the attack.
Kidnappings and armed attacks have intensified in Nigeria’s oil-rich south since 2006 in which nearly 200 foreigners have been abducted. Most have been released unharmed after a few days or weeks in captivity.
The abductors or attackers mainly belong to groups calling for a greater share of the oil wealth for the provinces where oil is found. The bulk of the revenues go to the federal government.
These attacks, coupled with acts of vandalism and sabotage, have cost Nigeria — the world’s sixth largest oil exporter — dear, translating into an annual revenue loss of 4.4 billion dollars (3.2 billion euros).