By Randy Fabi
ABUJA (Reuters) - Unknown attackers blew up a Nigeriancrude oil pipeline operated by U.S. major Chevron late onThursday, halting some production, military and securityofficials said on Saturday.
"An oil pipeline was attacked at 11:30 p.m. Thursdaynight," said Army Brigadier-General Wuyep Rintip, head of theJoint Task Force in the western Delta. "For production to havestopped, this shows the damage was serious."
Rintip said some 120,000 barrels per day was halted due tothe incident. Chevron officials were not immediately availableto comment.
A wave of attacks in the world's eighth largest oilexporter has cut production by a fifth since early 2006,helping push world oil prices to record highs.
Thursday's incident came hours after a bold night-timemilitant attack on Royal Dutch Shell's main offshore oilfacility that cut Nigeria's oil output by 10 percent.
The rise in violence prompted Nigerian President UmaruYar'Adua on Friday to order the country's armed forces totighten security in the Niger Delta.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta(MEND), which claimed responsibility for the attack on Shell'sBonga oilfield, shrugged off the president's security order as"empty talk" but said it was on a war footing.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack onChevron's pipeline.
A security source told Reuters the pipeline was located inAbiteye, where community members have attacked oil facilitiesin the past. In June 2007, armed youths attacked aChevron-operated flow station in the area, forcing the companyto shut down around 42,000 bpd of output.
Violence in the Niger Delta stems from a complex set offactors including poverty, lack of basic services, corruptionamong government officials and security forces, resentmenttoward foreign oil companies, and political thuggery.
Yar'Adua came into power just over a year ago promising tobring more security to the Niger Delta region, but the peaceprocess has stalled.
The Nigerian government will hold a long-awaited NigerDelta peace summit next month. But MEND and another rebel group-- Ijaw Youth Council -- have said they will not attend becausethey have lost faith in the government's peace process.
(Additional reporting by Nick Tattersall; Editing byCatherine Evans)
