By Randy Fabi
ABUJA (Reuters) - The main militant group in Nigeria'soil-producing Niger Delta said on Monday it had attacked twomajor crude oil pipelines belonging to Royal Dutch Shell,helping push world oil prices higher.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta(MEND), whose campaign of violence has cut Nigeria's oilproduction by around one-fifth since early 2006, said itsmembers conducted the attacks in the early hours of Mondaymorning.
"In keeping with our pledge to resume pipeline attackswithin the next thirty days, detonation engineers backed byheavily armed fighters ... sabotaged two major pipelines inRivers state of Nigeria," it said in an e-mailed statement.
Shell, which operates onshore in Nigeria in a joint venturewith state oil firm NNPC, said it was investigating an apparentattack on the Nembe Creek crude oil pipeline, but could notconfirm whether any production was affected.
"We are conducting an overfly to determine what actuallyhappened," said spokeswoman Caroline Wittgen.
Nigeria is the world's eighth largest exporter of oil.
Industry sources said about 130,000 barrels per day ofcrude oil flows through the pipeline to the Bonny exportterminal.
Oil from the facility is popular in the United States andEurope because it is easily refined into gasoline, diesel andother crude products.
U.S. crude oil prices rose on the news, trading above $124a barrel on Monday.
WARNING
The Shell-operated pipeline has been target of previousmilitant attacks, most recently in May, due to its vulnerablelocation in the deep forests of the delta -- the heart ofNigerian production.
Last week, MEND warned it would target oil pipelines toprove it did not receive payments from the government to endits attacks on the oil sector. The head of NNPC was quoted inNigerian newspapers last week as saying the company had paidmilitant groups $12 million (6 million pounds) to protectfacilities in the delta.
NNPC later said it was quoted out of context and the moneywas given to the local community, not militants.
Successive administrations in Nigeria have effectivelybought off leaders of militant groups in the Niger Delta byoffering financial rewards for laying down their weapons, astrategy known locally as "settling the boys".
MEND says it is fighting for greater control of the naturalresources in the delta, an impoverished area polluted by half acentury of oil exploration.
President Umaru Yar'Adua has pledged to try to address theroot causes of the unrest in the delta by bringing developmentto local communities but has also said he will not tolerate thepresence of armed groups in the creeks.
Plans for a long-delayed peace summit promised by hisadministration have fallen into disarray after a keygovernment-appointed mediator resigned this month and MEND saidit would not take part.
(Editing by Nick Tattersall and Catherine Evans)
