Nigeria: Thieves hit pipe.
Thieves tap NNPC pipeline
Suspected oil thieves in Nigeria sabotaged an oil pipeline operated by state-run Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in the southern Niger Delta yesterday, a military spokesman said today.
Colonel Rabe Abubakar told Reuters the pipeline attack occurred in the Ugbodede community in Delta state. It was not clear if any oil or gas production was affected by the incident.
"The pipeline, which was vandalised some 15 kilometres from a Shell jetty in the area, is owned by NNPC," he told the news agency.
Nigeria is the world's eighth biggest exporter of crude oil but thieves take a sizeable proportion of its output by drilling into pipelines or hijacking barges loaded with oil, a type of theft known locally as bunkering.