Nigerian militants blow up state-run gas pipeline

The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) militant group on Tuesday claimed responsibility for an attack on a gas pipeline belonging to the state-run oil company in southern Nigeria. "At 23:30 on Sunday, the NDA blew up Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) gas pipeline at Nsit-Ibom," in Akwa Ibom state, the group said in a terse statement. NNPC officials were not immediately available for comment, but the attack is bound to worsen gas supplies to power plants in a country reeling from daily outages. The Avengers have claimed a string of devastating attacks against the NNPC as well as oil majors Shell, Chevron, Exxon and Eni since February. The attacks have reduced output at a time when Nigeria is struggling with low global crude prices which have hammered government revenues, weakening the country's naira currency and pushing up inflation to near 11-year highs.