Nigerian militants attacked two oil installations in the heaviest fighting in the Niger Delta in two years, security sources said on Tuesday. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), responsible for attacks that have cut a fifth of the OPEC member's output since early 2006, attacked a Royal Dutch Shell oil pipeline and Chevron-operated oilfield. The oil market, focusing on the impact of the credit crisis on the global economy, has largely ignored the escalation in violence in the world's eighth largest oil exporter. Prices on Tuesday traded at a seven-month low near $92 a barrel. Shell confirmed one of its pipelines was sabotaged late Monday at Bakana in Rivers state, while Chevron said its idle Idama flow station was also attacked early Tuesday morning. Militants have bombed pipelines, platforms, gas plants and oilfields, shutting up to 115,000 barrels per day of oil production in the last four days, government officials said. Senior oil officials estimated Africa's top oil producer was currently pumping around 2.1 million bpd. Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, spokesman for the military task force in Rivers state, said the situation in the delta was under control. Some security sources in the oil industry estimate more than 100 people may have been killed in recent clashes, which have spread to at least nine villages in Rivers state.
