Nigerian Troops Disarm Dynamite On Oil Pipeline, 2nd Attack As OPEC Says Oil And Gas Will Remain World's Main Energy Source

OPEC forecasts that oil and gas will provide around 53 percent of world energy demand by 2040

A community leader says Nigerian security forces are trying to disarm explosives planted on a state-owned oil pipeline that has been attacked by militants twice recently.

Associated Press report continues:

Dickson Ogugu, chairman of the Batan community, said the militants fled the pipeline after a shootout with armed guards. The militants then dynamited a barge, which sank Tuesday. It belonged to a contractor repairing damage from a bombing last week that cut supplies to Dutch-British multinational Shell's 400,000-barrel-a-day Forcados export terminal.

Ogugu said the dynamite remains on the same pipeline in the southern Niger Delta.

Last week's attack came hours after President Muhammadu Buhari held inconclusive talks with stakeholders to halt the militancy whose sabotage has thrown the oil-dependent West African nation into recession.

The militants want a bigger share of oil revenues.

Meanwhile Associated Press reports that OPEC has trimmed its forecast for growth in world consumption of crude over the coming decades, but says oil and gas will remain the globe's main sources of energy.

The forecast is contained in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' 2016 world outlook.

The 14-nation cartel says total world oil demand will be 109 million barrels a day by 2040. That's 400,000 barrels a day less than its last annual estimate but still a daily 16 million barrels more than at present.

Its report Tuesday says that oil and gas will provide around 53 percent of world energy demand by that time.

The report was issued ahead of an OPEC oil ministers' meeting Nov. 30, focused on slightly reducing output to drive up prices.