A group called the Martyr's Brigade (a new group, splintered off of the NDPVF, that is part of the growing community of open source insurgency in Nigeria), claimed credit for a dynamite attack on a major Shell oil pipeline in the Niger Delta. The blast killed 8 tribesman, living in a nearby fishing village, and has been burning out of control for days. While the destroyed pipeline carried only 7% (180,000 bpd) of the country's crude oil exports, the cascading effect (due the destruction of four lines and the shut down of a pumping station due to co-location and mutual vulnerability) of the disruption has halted the export 300,000 barrels of light crude for a week or more. This is the third major attack in the last months and in the case (which is on par with most systems disruption) the attackers escaped without incident or identification. NOTE: Nigeria supplies 14% of US crude oil imports.
The Martyr Brigade's statement: "Today, we took out 200,000 barrels of oil per day from Shells production this year. Since the produced oil cannot provide any economic and social benefit ...more of such sabotage shall be carried out with great pace... " NOTE: A second pipeline explosion has been reported, again in a remote area.
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