My question is this: was the pipeline leaking, was there a rupture or was it deliberately punctured. No way to evaluate the significance of this event/oil spill without additional info

17 die in oil pipeline fire set by Nigerian youth

Copyright ) 2000 Nando Media Copyright ) 2000 Associated Press For more about Africa, visit Africa News Online. From Time to Time: Nando's in-depth look at the 20th century

LAGOS, Nigeria (February 9, 2000 10:21 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - A youth set fire to an oil pipeline during a dispute, killing 17 people in eastern Nigeria, news reports said Wednesday.

Witnesses said a group of people were standing in a pit Monday in the village of Ogwe siphoning off fuel from the pipeline when a young man asked to join, the Lagos Concord reported.

When the group refused to make room, he lit a match that triggered a large explosion, the paper said. Fire filled the pit and spread for more than 500 yards.

Fifteen people were killed right away and two more died on the way to hospital, the paper said. More than 20 others were injured, many of them seriously.

The fire had burned out by Tuesday. There were no immediate arrests.

Pipeline sabotage is common in this poverty-wracked nation in western Africa, and vandals have triggered several explosions in the past.

A massive explosion and deadly fire killed at least 700 people in October 1998 in the Niger Delta town of Jesse, including many who had gathered around the area to try to collect spilling fuel.

Link:

http://www.nandotimes.com/noframes/story/0,2107,500165557-500210192-500974185-0,00.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 09, 2000

Answers

This is not pipeline sabotage, however, but a tragic accident. As posts here over the last week have indicated, NIgeria, and espeically Zimbabwe, are suffering through extreeme shortages and outage of ol and diesel at this time, sever enough to cause a gold mine to close (I think it was in Zimbabwe) and most workers in Zimbabwe to walk to work.

Shortage naturally spurred the siphoning and this tragedy resulted.

>"<

-- Squirrel Hunter (nuts@upina.cellrelaytower), February 09, 2000.

A massive explosion and deadly fire killed at least 700 people in October 1998 ... including many who had gathered around the area to try to collect spilling fuel.

Just imagine how this forum would be abuzz with speculation about embedded chips in pressure control systems if that happened again next week. As the article says: this sort of thing is common in that corner of the world (though no less tragic for that).

-- nobody (nobody@no.where), February 10, 2000.

"Who" are the 'terrorists'?

http://www.bashar.com/GSP/McSpotLight.htm

Better yet...who are we kidding?

-- steve (WhoCares@nymore.Right?com), February 11, 2000.