The militant group, one of about a dozen such groups, issued a statement on their website Monday evening that read: “At about 7:30pm the Niger Delta Avengers blow up ExxonMobile Qua Iboe 48″ crude oil export pipeline,” according to Reuters.
“When will these international oil companies (IOC) learn to listen. We (Niger Delta Avengers) said no export,” it added.
#NigerDeltaAvengers Attack On Gas #Pipelines Cause Shortage In Power via @SaharaReporters pic.twitter.com/A31IrnFOFy
— Project Cyma (@projectcyma) July 12, 2016
The Delta Avengers have claimed responsibility for numerous attacks recently on oil and gas facilities in the country, creating an economic and financial crisis when it succeeded in pushing Nigeria’s crude production to 30-year lows in the spring of this year.
In a story published after the initial article came out about the attack, Reuters quoted Exxon Mobil spokesman Todd Spitler as saying, “There were no attacks on our facilities.”
According to The Nation.com, the nightmare isn’t going to end anytime soon as long as the “dirty dozen” has “sworn to bring the oil industry, and by extension, the country to its knees.”
In an exclusive interview with the Nigerian news site, the Vanguard on Saturday, the Avengers said that because President Muhammadu Buhari has ignored demands for legitimate dialogue with the militants and stakeholders on the Niger Delta question, “it would continue to encumber all avenues by him to export crude oil from the region.”
Well, it could be said that the blowing up of the Exxon-Mobil pipeline is the Avengers answer to the lack of a dialog with the Nigerian president. But in the meantime, with 2.2 million barrels of crude production projected for the 2016 budget, the nation is currently struggling to get 1.6 million barrels into what is itself a depressed global oil market.
