WARRI, Nigeria -- U.S. oil major Chevron <http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=cvx> Corp. shut down 100,000 barrels a day of Nigerian crude-oil production Monday after an attack on one of its pipelines, as fighting between Nigeria's military and militant groups in the southern delta region entered a second week.
Nigeria's main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, took credit for the attack, which occurred in the Abiteye area of Delta state. It claimed that it had also attacked four other pipelines leading to Chevron's oil tank farm in the region.
Monday's incident marks the first major retaliation from MEND since a sustained offensive by the Nigerian military's Joint Task Force began 10 days ago.
"We will continue our cat and mouse tactics with [the Nigerian military] until oil export ceases completely," MEND said in an emailed statement.
Chevron confirmed the attack on Abiteye and the halt in production but didn't comment on the other pipelines alleged to have been targeted. The incident is being investigated by the relevant stakeholders, a Chevron spokesman said in a statement.
Human-rights groups fear that thousands of villagers have been displaced and hundreds killed during the recent fighting, the worst the region has seen in years. Independent confirmation of casualties has been difficult due to limited access for aid workers and journalists to affected creek-side communities.
The Joint Task Force commander in the region said that humanitarian worries have been heavily exaggerated. "The area is still infested with militants, but not as bad as before," Major-Gen. Sarkin-Yaki Bello, the regional JTF commander, said in an interview.
The JTF has claimed several victories over the past week. It says it has killed or injured many militants, recovered weapons caches and destroyed the camp of the most powerful militant leader in the area.
But Monday's retaliatory attack by MEND highlights the difficulties the labyrinthine creeks of the Niger Delta present for the military. So far, no suspected militants have been arrested, and none of the JTF's claims of kills have been independently verified.
"These militants know the ground more than ourselves," JTF spokesman Col. Rabe Abubakar said. "They could be hiding anywhere."
The offensive, at least in the short term, has also led to significant reduction in the country's oil output. A senior Nigerian oil official said the country's petroleum ministry had in recent days voiced its concern to Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua about the impact the task force's assaults are having on output.
"We're very concerned this (the task force's assaults on militant positions) could make the situation a lot worse for (oil) production," said the official, who declined to be named because he wasn't authorized to talk publicly about the matter.
"Many civilians have been caught in the fighting. We are losing more production as we've seen and it hurts everyone because the government and the companies are seeing even less oil revenue," the official said.
Despite these difficulties, the JTF said it will continue its operations until it finds 16 soldiers and two officers missing since an attack on two of its gunboats May 13th.
Since 2006, unrest in the Niger Delta has shut in around 20% of Nigeria's oil production.
—Spencer Swartz in Vienna contributed to this article.
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Culled from Wall Street Journal
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