A Nigerian rebel group embattled with military forces on early Monday when they attack Alakiri oil flow station complex.
The group killed an unknown number of people working for the station belonging to the Shell Petroleum Development Company, according to a statement received here on Monday.
The statement, signed by the spokesman of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), said the Alakiri flow station complex operated by the Shell Petroleum Development Company has been attacked and the facility was on fire, while some workers and soldiers were killed inside the station, but do not know the exact number of the death.
MEND, the most prominent rebel group in the oil-rich Niger Delta who declared "oil war" against Nigerian military forces, reiterates its previous warnings in the statement to all oil workers in the entire Niger Delta region to evacuate from oil facilities and halt production with immediate effect "or they will have themselves to blame."
It also ordered international vessels not to come in to load crude oil from Nigeria ports in the south.
Spokesman for the military in Rivers State, Sagir Musa, confirmed militants' attack on the flow station.
"Militants in about 10 speedboats attacked a Shell location at Alakiri," Musa was quoted as saying by local media.
"The attack lasted for over an hour. Dynamite and bombs were massively detonated by the miscreants," he said.
Militancy in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta region has become a big headache for Nigerian government, which has created a brand-new Ministry of Niger Delta on Wednesday allegedly to facilitate peace and development in the region.
Since the beginning of 2006, militant groups emerged in Niger Delta region, fighting for more local control of natural resources, especially oil, through way of kidnapping oil workers and attacks on oil facilities.
More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped and a string of attacks on oil pipelines, wells and terminals have been registered by now, which had led to about 25 per cent oil production drop compared with the country's peak oil output of 2.6 million barrels per day.