Nigerian Militants Strike Shell Oil Rig

Royal Dutch Shell was forced to shut down production of its Bonga field off the coast of Nigeria’s volatile Niger Delta region after an attack by militants on an enormous rig far offshore, the company said Thursday.

“Indeed there has been an armed attack,” said Eurwen Thomas, a spokeswoman for Shell in London. “Production has been shut down.”

Militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, a shadowy rebel group that has carried out an escalating series of attacks oil installations and the soldiers who guard them in the creeks of the Niger Delta over the last few years, claimed responsibility for the strike.

But in latest attack was on a rig lies 75 miles offshore, which requires much better equipment and military-style coordination. It was the first time militants have managed to hit Shell’s deep offshore platform, Ms. Thomas said.