Theft, rather than political motivations, likely led gunmen to rupture a Royal Dutch Shell PLC pipeline running through the creeks and swamplands of the Niger Delta, a military spokesman said.
Lt. Col. Timothy Antigha, who oversees a military operation that patrols the oil-rich region, said information gathered where the pipeline broke open led officials to suspect robbery as a motivation. The country’s main militant group in the long-troubled Niger Delta also said it had no hand in the pipeline’s failure Saturday.
“It might have been an isolated case of oil theft,” Antigha said Monday.
The lieutenant colonel said an investigation into what happened to the pipeline run by Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary remains ongoing and he declined to say whether the military has any suspects in mind.
The theft of crude oil — known as “bunkering” in Nigeria — is a big business among militants and thieves in the area. Using at times crude or highly technical methods, the thieves will cut into the conduit to siphon away the oil. However, the thefts can cause the pipelines to rupture or burst into flames. Oil spills are common and protection of the lines remain difficult in rural areas where militants and criminals often kidnap foreign workers for ransom.
The thefts cost Nigeria, whose federal and state government budgets are the main beneficiaries of oil exploration, billions of dollars a year.
Shell, which Sunday described the pipeline rupture as an act of “sabotage,” has said it cut off three flow stations connected to the Trans-Ramos pipeline running through Bayelsa State.
The pipeline’s eruption Saturday came immediately after the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, the main militant group, announced that it would abandon a cease-fire agreement it had with the government since Oct. 25. MEND issued a statement Monday saying it “was not directly involved in the attacks.”
However, “it was certainly a response to our order to resume hostilities,” the group said. Militants targeted the same pipeline during a wave of attacks in June.
Militants in the Niger Delta have attacked pipelines, kidnapped petroleum company employees and fought government troops since January 2006. They demand that the federal government send more oil-industry funds to Nigeria’s southern region, which remains poor despite five decades of oil production.
That violence has cut Nigeria’s oil production by about 1 million barrels a day, allowing Angola to surge ahead as Africa’s top oil producer. Still, Nigeria remains the No. 3 crude oil supplier to the U.S., offering the country nearly a million barrels a day in November, according to U.S. government statistics.
Attacks, kidnapping and pipeline breaks in the Niger Delta have greatly swayed global oil prices in the past. Monday, oil prices rose above $73 a barrel on news of the pipeline eruption.