The rebel group, Niger Delta Avengers carrying out the attacks has put up demands.

Oil and gas exploitation companies in the southern Delta Region  of Nigeria now face a precarious situation as the rebel group Niger Delta Avengers has not only stepped up attacks on oil installations  but pose complicated conditions.

Reports say the group claimed responsibility for an attack on a Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipeline that took place on Thursday near Warri in the southern state. The bomb attack forced US-based oil major Chevron to put its onshore activities in Nigeria on hold at its 160,000-barrel a day Escravos export terminal. "This is the same pipeline that has already been attacked in February and May this year and which provides gas to Lagos for power generation," news agencies reported quoting Dirk Steffen, from the Denmark-based Risk Intelligence firm. The attack was the second in two days following an assault on Chevron infrastructure. The attackers in their most sophisticated assaults in  last February, targeted Shell’s underwater flow line near Forcado.

The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) is said to be demanding more equitable distribution of the income generated by oil and gas production and for remedial action to counter the effects of gas tracking and other forms of pollution in the environmentally damaged delta region. Its leaders are calling for "true fiscal federalism" as well as self-determination, and secession. The NDA have given oil companies in the region an ultimatum to stop operations or face more attacks by the end of May. 

The most disturbing part of the attacks is the fact that community leaders in the Delta region have expressed for support for NDA. "Until the issues of resource control that the Niger Delta people have been fighting for since 1960 are addressed ... there can be no peace," Udengs Eradiri, President of the Ijaw Youth Congress is quoted as declaring.