Recent spate of attacks on oil and gas infrastructure may have reduced Nigeria’s crude oil output by 50% to 1.1m b/d an official of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was reported in the media to have said.
Fresh attacks on oil and gas pipelines two days after an assault on Chevron infrastructure, the militant group calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers has again attacked NNPC pipeline near Batan oil field in its campaign to cripple Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
Emmanuel Kachikwu, Nigeria’s minister of petroleum resources has said that production had plummeted to 1.4 million b/d, but persistent attacks in recent times have push down output further.
Currently, four Nigerian crude export grades — Qua Iboe, Bonny Light, Brass River and Forcados — are under force majeure.
All of these grades except for Qua Iboe are under force majeure as a direct result of the militant attacks.
The Niger Delta Avengers has claimed on Twitter that it attacked the pipeline belonging to NNPC despite the presence of government troops guiding the facilities.
“At 11:45pm on Thursday @NDAvengers blew up other #NNPC Gas and Crude trunkline close to Warri,” Niger Delta Avengers said.
An NNPC spokesman said a team of investigators was being put together to verify the claim by the group.
ISAAC ANYAOGU
