Nigerian militant group claims attack on oil facility run by Italian firm Agip

Nigerian militants claim attack on Agip pipeline

LAGOS, Nigeria — Militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta announced Thursday they had attacked a major pipeline junction run by the Italian firm Agip, only days after claiming responsibility for another attack in the region.

A statement by the Joint Revolutionary Council claimed its fighters launched an assault early Wednesday morning on an Agip pipeline junction that connects several crude oil storage fields. However, Lt. Col. Timothy Antigha, a military spokesman for the region, dismissed the attack claims as “completely false.”

“These people are seeking relevance which they do not deserve,” he said in a statement.

Even claims of attacks can affect global crude oil prices.

The telephones of Agip spokesmen at its Rome headquarters rang unanswered Thursday.

The militant group claimed military troops guarding the facility surrendered and that oil from the pipeline rupture was now flowing into a river. The group also called on foreign oil companies and their workers to abandon the region, along with diplomats, so “they will not be caught in the line of fire.”

“Our strategy is to reduce the export capacity of the occupation Nigerian State to zero and weaken their financial strength before our guerrilla army will be unleashed to chase them out of our territory,” the group said in its statement.

The Joint Revolutionary Council is a smaller militant group that once claimed to be allied with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, the main militant force in the Delta. It has carried out attacks in the past, some of which MEND later denied being involved in. However, ties between groups remain murky and criminal gangs sometimes describe themselves as politically motivated militants when it suits them.

But now the council appears to be stepping into a vacuum left after some militants gave up their weapons for a government amnesty program. The council claimed responsibility for an attack Tuesday on an oil flow station operated by a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell PLC. A Shell spokesman later confirmed the attack, but said the facility hadn’t run in some time and was unmanned at the time.

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. They also criticize the oil giants for polluting their rivers with spilled oil and flared excess gas produced when drilling.

The region became peaceful after negotiations began for the government-sponsored amnesty program, which planned to offer cash payoffs for militants to abandon the fighting. Some militants also heralded Goodluck Jonathan becoming acting president as a positive sign, as he is the first Niger Delta politician to take over the country’s highest office. However, many militants have grown restless in recent weeks as they say the government has stalled the peace process.