ANGOLA      ALGERIA      CAMEROON      CHAD.      CONGO      EGYPT      EQUATORIAL GUINEA      GABON      LIBYA.     NIGERIA      SOUTH AFRICA      SUDAN      TUNISIA      OTHERS 

ENI's Pipeline Damaged by Explosion in Nigeria

07-17-2008

Eni pipeline in southern oil region in Nigeria has been damaged by explosion early Thursday.

The company said a sudden drop in pressure led it to halt production on pipelines carrying 47,000 gallons of oil a day.

Col. Chris Musa, the head of the Bayelsa State military, said the blast "affected output" on the pipeline owned by Agip, a subsidiary of the Italian energy giant, ENI.

He did not say how much oil output decreased or how severe the damage was. Musa said he did not have information on casualties.

"I can confirm that there was an explosion, but we don't yet know if the pipeline was vandalized or if it was an accident," Musa told the media. He said an Agip team was at the site investigating what caused the blast.

A statement on Eni's Web site confirmed that a "sudden drop of pressure" occurred overnight on certain pipelines in the area, leading it to halt production on those lines. The suspension shuts 47,000 barrels of oil a day, 8,000 of which belong to Eni, the company said.

"At the moment the causes of the incident are unknown," the statement said, adding that it already had called in units to start repairs.

In Italy, it was not immediately possible to get comment from officials at Eni headquarters, where the phone lines at its media office were consistently busy.

Attacks on oil industry infrastructure in the past two years have slashed oil output by almost a quarter in Nigeria, Africa's top crude producer. The instability has helped push worldwide crude prices to historic highs.