Fires have broken out along a pipeline in remote southern Nigeria, a state oil company official said on Tuesday, a week after unknown gunmen attacked two other pipelines in the volatile Niger Delta, Reuters reported. The official said he did not know the cause of the blazes on the pipeline, which carries petroleum products from a refinery in Warri, the oil hub of Delta state, to northern Nigeria. "Early this morning we put out one but we are still battling the others," said J.A. Uwaseba, deputy area manager for operations of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), an arm of the Nigerian state oil company. There was no immediate word on casualties, if any. On Dec. 20, a suspected dynamite attack on two crude oil pipelines operated by Royal Dutch Shell in neighbouring Rivers state killed 11 people and cut output by 180,000 barrels per day (bpd), pushing up world oil prices. The Niger Delta, where violence and sabotage against the oil industry are common, accounts for almost all of Nigeria's 2.4 million bpd of crude oil production, Reuters said. Uwaseba said fires had broken out in several locations along the PPMC pipeline in Adeje community, 12 km (seven miles) from Warri. Police officers prevented a Reuters reporter from approaching the pipeline. Villagers said the blazes were at remote locations deep in the mangrove forest. The pipeline is a frequent target for thieves who tap into it to syphon off fuel. The practice, known as bunkering, often causes fires and slicks, but it is unusual for several fires to break out at once. --SP 22 07 Local Time 19 07 GMT
