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December 21, 2005
Militants suspected in oil pipeline fire in Nigeria
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (AP) -- Investigators are probing the source of a fire that was still blazing Wednesday on a ruptured Royal Dutch Shell oil pipeline in southern Nigeria as the company announced further petroleum production cuts.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005; Posted: 11:20 a.m. EST (16:20 GMT)
Residents near the conduit in Nigeria's strife-riven south said suspected militia fighters blew up the pipeline southwest of Port Harcourt Tuesday with dynamite, sparking a conflagration that killed eight.
Shell spokeswoman Caroline Wittgen said she couldn't confirm any deaths or injuries, citing the ongoing investigation. She said the pipeline was still ablaze Wednesday.
Nigeria normally has daily output of about 2.5 million barrels. Shell and its local partners normally produce about 1 million barrels per day.
The company said its daily output reduction reached 180,000 barrels per day, up from 170,000 a day earlier, after the company and its local partners shut down a flow station. There was no word on when full production would be restored.
In Wednesday trading, crude prices rose on the news coupled with an expected release of petroleum-supply data in the United States.
Despite the valuable crude pumped from Nigeria's south, the region remains one of the country's poorest and is frequently the site of violence as rival groups compete for power -- which means access to oil revenues.
Posted by Publisher at December 21, 2005 03:48 PM
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