Shell oil company denied Sunday a claim by Nigerian militants that they had attacked a major Shell pipeline in the volatile Niger Delta, a company spokesman said.
A group called the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC) said in a statement that overnight it had attacked and “successfully disabled the trunk line belonging to Shell in the swamp of Obunoma” in oil-rich Rivers State.
But Shell spokesman Precious Okolobo told AFP: “We have no report of any attack in that area.”
The JRC also said in its statement it was “reinvigorated as a result of series of consultations with patriotic groups in our territory.”
The main militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) announced last week it was calling off a three-month-old truce with the government.
A key demand of the militants is that local communities benefit from the region’s oil wealth.
Oil is Nigeria’s economic mainstay, raking in some 95 percent of export earnings and accounting for about 85 percent of budget requirements for the OPEC member country.