(Ecofin Agency) - The Niger Delta Avengers has blown a pipeline owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Oruk Anam local government area of Akwa Ibom.This is coming after the militant group, which has claimed responsibility for several attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria's southern oil region, had said it would only dialogue with the government if independent foreign intermediaries were involved.

Meanwhile NNPC has also managed to shut down a valve in a pipeline in Niger Delta due to a gas leak following an explosion carried out by the militants.“At around 4 a.m. we heard the loud noise of an explosion, then a sound like rain so we came out and saw gas gushing out from the NNPC pipeline. There is no fire there now. Engineers ... have switched off the valve," Nsikak Joshua, a community leader in Ikot-Osute, the site of the blast told Reuters.

Nigeria’s oil production has dropped to a 20-year low as a result of a series of attacks on oil pipelines in the southern Niger Delta, where much of the country’s oil and gas wealth is situated, in the last few months.

Anita Fatunji