Saboteurs Blow Up Agip Oil Pipeline In Nigeria

The line between militancy and criminality in the creeks of the Niger Delta is blurred.

Saboteurs blew up an oil pipeline operated by Italy's Agip in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta late on Friday, the military said on Saturday.

Brigadier-General Wuyep Rimtip, commander of the joint military taskforce in the western Niger Delta, said the pipeline had been attacked between the villages of Odimodi and Ogulagha in Delta state.

Agip officials were not immediately available to comment and it was not clear if there was any impact on production.

"It was not a militant attack, it was saboteurs because they used dynamite to blow up the pipeline. We have reported it to Agip," Rimtip told Reuters.

He said the pipeline ran through an area whose ownership was disputed by communities living in Odimodi and Ogulagha.

Attacks on pipelines and industry installations in the Niger Delta by militants demanding a fairer share of the profits from the region's natural wealth have cut the country's oil production by around a fifth over the past three years.

Nigeria is currently pumping around 2 million barrels per day, making it the world's eighth biggest exporter.

The line between militancy and criminality in the creeks of the Niger Delta is blurred.

Pipelines are frequently ruptured by gangs engaged in a multi-million-dollar trade in stolen oil. The crude is transported on barges to tankers waiting off Nigeria's coast, before being mixed in with legitimate cargo and sold on the international market.