Nigeria oil delta militants say killed 3 soldiers

LAGOS, March 25 (Reuters) - Militants in Nigeria's oil producing southern delta said on Saturday they had killed three soldiers in a remote area close to a major natural gas plant, and threatened to carry out more attacks.

An army spokesman said three soldiers were abducted, but not killed as far as he knew, in the Soku area of Bayelsa state, one of the three main oil producing states in the Niger Delta.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) claimed responsibility. MEND is holding three foreign oil staff hostage in a different part of the delta and has staged attacks on oil facilities that have cut Nigeria's output by a quarter.

"We confirm that three soldiers were killed in this encounter ... The military patrol boat and a sizeable quantity of weapons and ammunition were captured," MEND said in a statement e-mailed to journalists.

Army spokesman colonel M D Yusuf said the army had not received any report that the men had been killed. "They were abducted while they were not on official duty. We are searching for them," he said.

Militants, often armed and funded with the proceeds of crude oil theft, roam the mangrove-lined waterways of the delta in speedboats and many areas are off-limits for security forces who have lost control of the region.

A major natural gas gathering station at Soku supplies the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas plant at Bonny and some oil production facilities.

OIL SPILL

The Nigerian arm of Anglo-Dutch oil major Royal Dutch Shell said on Saturday it had detected an oil spill at a dormant wellhead in the Ogoni area of Rivers state.

"If crude oil is spilling from a dormant wellhead it means the wellhead has been tampered with. Thankfully there are no human settlements near the wellhead and we are working to contain the spill," a Shell spokesman said.

Shell stopped pumping oil a decade ago in Ogoni because of activism against the firm by members of the small Ogoni tribe, led by writer Ken Saro-Wiwa who was hanged by the then military government in 1995 along with eight other Ogoni activists. The Ogoni area has been relatively peaceful in recent years.

It was not clear if the spill was connected to MEND's campaign of attacks. MEND has so far targeted active facilities in its campaign to cut Nigerian exports.

In Saturday's statement, the group reiterated threats of more attacks and hostage takings.

"In response to the Nigerian government's demand for an unconditional release of the hostages, our units have been directed to capture more expatriates," it said.

Many militant groups, including MEND, say they are fighting for the people of the delta to gain control of oil resources.

The poor majority in the delta have seen few benefits from decades of oil extraction that has yielded billions of dollars in profits for foreign oil companies and corrupt politicians.

But genuine grievances are hard to untangle from the struggle for the profits of crude oil theft. Authorities often dismiss militants as thieves but rights activists say the army and politicians are also on the take.

Many in the delta feel cheated of the wealth their lands have produced and their resentment, combined with mass unemployment and corruption in government, makes the region a fertile ground for militancy.