Vandals blow up major Nigerian oil pipeline

LAGOS, Nigeria -- A major oil pipeline in Nigeria's petroleum-rich Niger Delta burned Monday after being blown up by vandals, days after ethnic militants threatened to destroy property belonging to multinational oil companies in the volatile region.

Oil firms have slashed output by more than 800,000 barrels a day -- 40 percent of the 2 million barrels Nigeria normally produces daily -- because of ethnic fighting that has killed hundreds in the area in recent weeks. There were new reports Monday of more ethnic fighting.

The pipe near the southern port of Warri was blown up Saturday, said Ndu Ughamadu, spokesman for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. The fire still burned Monday morning, he said.

No one claimed responsibility, but ethnic Ijaws in the region, who believe the government may be trying to sideline them ahead of national elections, have threatened to blow up oil installations.

Common explosions

Also, explosions and other deadly accidents involving gangs of thugs who siphon petroleum products from pipelines are common.

The pipeline carries crude oil from ChevronTexaco's Escravos oil terminal to a refinery in Warri and another in Kaduna, 450 miles to the north.

ChevronTexaco evacuated Escravos on March 23 after several days of fighting between Nigerian soldiers and militants from the area's two major ethnic groups, the majority Ijaws and minority Itsekiris. Workers began returning Friday.

Nigeria is the fifth-largest supplier of U.S. oil imports.

The explosion came amid reports of renewed fighting between the Ijaws and the Itsekiris. Austin Ogboroegbeyi, an Itsekiri activist leader, accused Ijaws of attacking remote villages of Bateren and Jakpa on Thursday and Friday.

An unknown number of people were killed, including an Itsekiri village chief, he said.

Ijaw militant leader Boro Oboko denied his soldiers attacked. The reports could not be confirmed because the villages are in a remote part of the marshy delta reachable only by boat.

Ijaw and Itsekiri leaders met with President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday at his presidential villa in the capital, Abuja, to try to reach a truce.

Last month, tribal Ijaw militants fought rival Itsekiris and government troops, accusing the government of drawing up voting boundaries for this month's elections, in which Obasanjo is seeking a second term.

Obasanjo has ordered a crackdown on Ijaw militants who killed 10 soldiers, prompting the militants to respond with threats to blow up oil facilities in the marshlands and creeks of the delta.