By Randy Fabi
ABUJA (Reuters) - Armed youths blew up a Nigerian crude oilpipeline operated by U.S. major Chevron, a militant group saidon Saturday, cutting more output from the world's eighthlargest oil exporter.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND)said it was contacted by youths claiming responsibility forThursday's attack on Chevron's Abiteye-Olero crude pipeline.
The military said about 120,000 barrels per day of crudeoil production was shut by the sabotage.
"For production to have stopped, this shows the damage wasserious," said the government's Army Brigadier-General WuyepRintip, head of the Joint Task Force in the western Delta.
A Chevron spokeswoman confirmed that one of its pipelineswas damaged, but declined to say how much output was affected.
A wave of attacks in the West African country has cutproduction by a fifth since early 2006, helping push world oilprices 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.
"MEND wishes to commend these patriotic youths who we arenow empowering with more powerful explosives and new techniquesto destroy additional pipelines inside delta state," the groupsaid in an email to Reuters.
COMMUNITY TENSION
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)
