Militants blew up another crude pipeline in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, a youth and protest leader said on Thursday.
Protesters also continued to block the entrance to a Chevron oil depot in the restive southern region for a third day.
On Wednesday, a previously unknown group called Delta Greenland
Justice Mandate said it had attacked a crude pipeline belonging to state
oil firm NNPC and local firm Shoreline Natural Resources in Urhobo in
Delta state.
“It is true but I don’t have details yet,” said Collins Edema, a
youth leader. He said the pipeline was on fire, but Reuters was unable
to confirm this and it was not immediately possible to get more details.
He also said protesters, mostly unemployed youths, were continuing a
demonstration started on Tuesday at the gate of a Chevron oil depot to
demand jobs and housing, claiming the facility had destroyed their
settlement.
“Our protest is going on peacefully today on Thursday. Our community
workers inside the tank farm have joined the protest as we speak,” Edema
said.
“Nobody is going in and out of the facility since we’ve started but
Chevron has airlifted their senior staff from there,” he said, a claim
Reuters could not verify.
Chevron confirmed a protest had taken place but did not say whether oil production had been affected.
Edema said the protesters might shut down Chevron’s crude flow in
Abiteye, Jones Creek and other operations in the area if the company
does not agree to their demands.
Communities in Nigeria’s southern swampland often complain about oil
pollution and houses being moved so oil drilling can take place. They
also say they live in poverty despite sitting on much of Nigeria’s oil
wealth. The Niger Delta region has been hit by a wave of militant
attacks on oil and gas pipelines, reducing the country’s crude output by
700,000 barrels a day, according to state oil company NNPC.
The militants say they want a greater share of Nigeria’s oil wealth –
which accounts for around 70 percent of national income – to be passed
on to communities in the impoverished region and for areas blighted by
oil spills to be cleaned up
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