Lagos - Nigerian militants have set fire to a major oil pipeline and are preventing engineers from inspecting it five days after the pipeline was reported ruptured, Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell said on Thursday.
The 18-inch (45cm) Assa-Rumuekpe crude oil pipeline was reported to be leaking on November 27 in the Egbeda community's territory to the west of the city of Port Harcourt in the volatile Niger Delta region, Shell said.
The company's Nigerian arm, SPDC, sent an investigation team to the area but, as they began working, an unidentified group set fire to the spill while local youths chased the engineers away from the site, a statement said.
"The militants have also seized two SPDC vehicles... Rivers State Government agencies have been approached to intervene in the interest of safety of lives and the environment," the company's statement said.
News24