Lagos — Shell said yesterday it successfully contained the oil spill caused by suspected saboteurs, who used a hack-saw to cut through the company's Adibawa delivery pipeline in the Okordia-Zarama community in Bayelsa State.

Shell's spokesman, Mr Precious Okolobo told THISDAY last night that the damage to the Adibawa delivery pipeline was reported on Tuesday and a team of company officials was sent to the location to determine the cause of the spill."They discovered that the spill was caused by sabotage. There was a hack-saw on the delivery line.

Between January and June this year, the same line was sabotaged 9 times, and within last year, the line was sabotaged 10 times. We have contained the leak and everything" Okolobo said.

Okolobo did not immediately say who was behind the attack nor the volume of crude oil lost. He, however, disclosed that the line was clamped and the spill stopped on Wednesday, while a clean up of the area was in progress.

Europe's largest oil company lost its position as Nigeria 's biggest oil producer, to the activities of the Niger Delta militants, who kidnap its workers and destroy oil installations.

The attack by the militants and other criminal gangs operating in the oil-rich region, which started more than two years ago, has reduced the company's daily ouput.

Shell's 130,000 barrels per day Nembe Creek trunk line, which feeds the Bonny export terminal, was attacked in May by the Movement of the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), leading to a declaration of force majure by the oil giant.

The declaration of force majure indemnifies the company from any contractual obligation to its customers.