Nigerian bombings cut oil output

By Estelle Shirbon

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian rebels blew up three oil pipelines in the Niger Delta on Tuesday, forcing Italian oil giant Eni to halt production of 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) feeding its Brass export terminal, a source at Eni said.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which has now shut down more than a quarter of Nigerian oil output, said in an e-mail it bombed the pipelines to embarrass President Olusegun Obasanjo in his last days in office.

The MEND vowed to carry out more attacks in the world's eighth-largest crude exporter, where about 700,000 bpd were already being lost before the latest attacks.

Raids on oil facilities and abductions have become frequent in the delta. Three South Koreans and eight Filipinos were freed on Tuesday after five days, a diplomat and security sources said, although another nine foreigners remain in captivity.

"If those two pipelines have been blown up then there is zero production. They are the only two pipelines that carry all our production," said an Eni source, asking not to be named.

The source spoke after Eni's head office in Italy said the company had suspended production at its Akri and Oshi oilfields after sabotage of the Ogoda-Brass and Tebidaba-Brass pipelines.

Eni said it had already started repairing the pipelines, but did not specify the volume of oil production lost. The Brass terminal is capable of exporting 200,000 bpd but the Eni source said the company's current quota was 150,000 bpd.

"There is no activity whatsoever, everything has been stopped at the terminal and production at the fields has been halted," a shipping agent with Hull Blyth told Reuters by telephone from offices close to the terminal.