Heavy spill as Avengers blow up SPDC facilities in Delta

Firstclass Newsline gathered that the dreaded militant group, Niger
Delta Avengers, have once again blown up crude oil trunkline belonging
to the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria in Batan, Warri
South-West Local Government Area of Delta State.
It was gathered that the incident occurred at about 12.05am on Monday.
The fresh attack happened around Camp 3, few kilometres away from the
spot where the militants had recently also attacked oil installations
early this month.
It took soldiers over five hours before finally confirming the attack.
Findings revealed that a technical team from Pipelines and Product
Marketing Company drafted to the spot could not curtail the spill as
of 4.32pm, as crude was said to still be gushing out of the attacked
pipeline.
Sources from the community, who confirmed the attack to firstclass
newsline, said soldiers had a difficult time locating the attacked
pipeline because of it remoteness in the swamp of Batan.
The sources said the militants shot sporadically for some minutes
before detonating devices to blow up the pipeline.
A top military officer confirmed the attack when contacted by
firstclass newsline, saying his men had a hard time identifying the
spot as it was too remote for military personnel to easily access.
The Chairman of Batan Community, Dickson Ogugu, when contacted,
confirmed the incident and appealed to the militants to halt their
hostility on oil installations in the region especially within the
Batan axis.
Ogugu, who lamented the spate of attacks on oil facilities within the
region, urged the militants to accept the offer of dialogue that the
Federal Government was offering them in the interest of peace.
He lamented that his kinsmen could no longer go for fishing which was
their main occupation, thereby leading to lack and hunger among the
people.
A PPMC source, who confirmed the incident to firstclass newsline,
said that the pipeline which served the Warri refinery and Forcados
had just been fixed after the militants attacked it about three weeks
ago.
Although the militant group had yet to take responsibility for the
attack, the industry source added that the pipeline only resumed
supply of crude few days ago before being attacked again on Monday.
It added that the spill was enormous, making it hard for the
technical/maintenance team deployed to the spot to curtail it.
The spokesperson for the 4th Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Benin,
Edo State, Capt. Musa Maidawa, could not respond to enquiries as of
the time of filing this report.
But the Public Relations Officer of the Delta State Police Command,
SP Celestina Kalu, confirmed the attack.
"There was something of that nature at Camp 3 in Batan community. It
happened around 0030hrs of today (Monday)," Kalu's brief text message
to firstclass newsline read.