ABUJA, Nigeria, July 8 (UPI) -- Italian energy company Eni confirmed Friday that it was the target of sabotage in the Niger Delta, with a minor impact on its equity production.
A group calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers took credit for an attack on pipeline infrastructure in the southern Bayelsa state that's operated by a subsidiary of Italian energy company Eni.
A spokesperson for the company confirmed the attack in a statement emailed to UPI. About 4,000 barrels of oil equivalent production equity to Eni was impacted, though the spokesperson said overall operations were still under force majeure, meaning it's freed from fulfilling its contract because of circumstances beyond its control.
The attack come nearly one month to the day after the group said it blew up a pipeline in Bayelsa state said to be the largest operated by Eni's subsidiary in the Niger Delta region.
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The Niger Delta Avengers surfaced early this year, launching a militant campaign against national and international energy companies working in the Niger Delta. The group accuses the government of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari of favoring oil and gas interests over the interests of the people in the Niger Delta.
By the World Bank's estimates, more than 70 percent of the government's revenue comes from oil. In a report on the job market in Nigeria, the World Bank found widespread polarization as the vast majority of the population are trapped in low-productivity and traditional subsistence activities. Only a small portion of the workforce is benefiting from any economic growth in the country, the report found.
The government last month said progress was made on brokering a truce with Niger Delta militants, though the group itself has maintained it was not party to any talks with the Buhari administration.
The group this week was suspended from Twitter after breaching the site's policies.
"Niger Delta Avenger is not on social networks anymore," spokesman Mudoch Agbinibo said in a statement.
