Nigeria Militants Resume Attacks on Pipelines

Nigeria's state-oil company said militants have sabotaged its pipelines over the weekend, less than two weeks after the government said it had negotiated a 30-day truce to end the attacks.

Over the weekend, the Niger Delta Avengers, the most prominent group of militants seeking better oil-revenue redistribution, said on its Twitter account it had carried five attacks on three NNPC pipelines and two wells run by Chevron Corp. The U.S. oil company didn't respond to a request for comment.

A spokesman for the Nigerian National Petroleum Co. Monday confirmed the militants' claims. "Our engineers are on site assessing of the damage to facilities," he said.

Last month, Nigerian government officials said a cease-fire had been reached that included the Avengers, though the group denied reaching a truce via its Twitter account.

In recent months, the Avengers and other groups have frequently attacked oil pipelines across Nigeria controlled by big oil companies such as Italy's Eni SpA and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, toppling the country's position as Africa's number No. 1 oil producer.

The renewed wave of attacks come as oil prices have been buoyed by disruptions in Africa's largest historical producer.

According to the International Energy Agency, Nigeria's output was down by 500,000 barrels a day, to 1.37 million barrels a day in May, compared with 1.87 million barrels a day in January before the attacks escalated.

The oil outages have helped oil prices rebound to above $50 a barrel—a level not seen since October 2015.

Write to Benoit Faucon at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 04, 2016 21:05 ET (01:05 GMT)

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