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The attacks closed the Brass export terminal, a facility run by Eni's Agip unit with a capacity of about 200,000 barrels a day, Bayelsa state spokesman Ekiyor Welson said. Two of the pipelines were in the Akasa region, the other in Brass, according to a statement from MEND. The attacks cut off power at the Brass terminal, the statement said.
MEND said the action, as well as a May 1 attack where the group kidnapped six expatriates working for Chevron Corp.'s Nigeria unit, was intended to send a message of dissatisfaction to the outgoing administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
``We are moving on to other oil companies shortly,'' MEND's spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, said in an e-mailed statement. ``The last days of this regime will see more pipeline destruction.''
Obasanjo will hand over power to Umaru Yar'Adua on May 29, following elections last month. The transfer will be the first handover from one civilian government to another since Nigeria won independence 47 years ago.
Eni said that pipelines leading to the Brass export terminal from the Ogoda and Tebidaba facilities were sabotaged. The company stopped production at the Akri and Oshi fields, it said in a statement posted on its Web site. Eni didn't say how much production capacity was affected.
Attacks Stepped Up
MEND has attacked oil installations in the delta for the past year in a campaign to cripple Africa's biggest industry. The raids forced Royal Dutch Shell Plc's unit in Nigeria to halt output of about 500,000 barrels a day, almost a quarter of the country's production. The group has also abducted more than 30 expatriates. No hostages were taken in today's attacks, Gbomo said.
Today's attacks may bring the nationwide total of crude output halted to more than 700,000 barrels a day, or about a third of the country's production. Chevron's Nigeria unit was forced to halt 42,000 barrels of crude production yesterday following a community protest. The company also has 15,000 shut in from MEND's May 1 attack.
Samson Emoh, a chief from the Akasa region, said in an interview the aftermath of the MEND attack is visible in his village. Local residents said ``there is a lot of spillage of crude oil in the creeks,'' Emoh said in a telephone interview.
MEND Demands
MEND wants the government to cede control of the oil industry to Niger delta states, where the crude is pumped. It also demands the release of Mujahid Dokubu Asari, a militia leader jailed on charges of treason, and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, a former governor of Bayelsa state, who was impeached and arrested on money-laundering charges.
Communities in the Niger delta, a maze of creeks and rivers feeding into one of the world's biggest remaining areas of mangroves, are among Nigeria's poorest, a report funded by Shell said in 2004. Unemployment is over 90 percent in some areas.
