A suspected dynamite attack on a major Nigerian oil pipeline killed eight people and cut output from the world's eighth largest exporter by seven percent, authorities said on Tuesday according to Reuters. The sabotage by unidentified gunmen on the pipeline operated by Royal Dutch Shell also caused a major oil spill and fire in the remote southern Niger Delta, the company said. "The attack was very devastating ... the whole community has been razed down by the explosion. Eight corpses have been recovered so far and many more are still missing," Monwan Etete, chairman of Andoni local government area, told journalists in the Rivers state capital Port Harcourt. Shell closed two oilfields to help curb the fire and said that 170,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil output had been "deferred". The company originally said in a statement that only 170 bpd were affected. "The fire may have been caused by a dynamite attack carried out by unknown persons," Shell's statement said. Video footage showed flames as tall as a four-storey building from a slick on the water's surface. --More 2208 Local Time 1908 GMT
