UPDATE 1-Nigeria sabotage costs ENI 24,000 barrels a day

Published: 08 Jul 2009 17:00:04 PST

* Eni statement follows Nigeria militant sabotage claim

* Follows sabotage on pipe to Brass terminal in June (Adds background)

MILAN, July 8 - Italian oil and gas group Eni said an oil pipeline north of Brass in Nigeria had been sabotaged on Wednesday with a production loss of about 24,000 barrels of oil per day.

In a statement on its website, Eni said its equity share of the production loss was 4,800 barrels of oil per day.

Earlier on Wednesday, Nigeria's most prominent militant group said it sabotaged oil pipelines operated by Shell and Eni's Agip, widening a six-week long offensive against Africa's biggest energy industry.

On June 19, Eni said an attack on a pipeline between the Ogoda Manifold and the Brass terminal halted production of 33,000 bpd of oil and 2 million cubic metres of gas per day.

Eni declared force majeure on crude oil exports from Brass River on June 23.

Shell, Agip and U.S. oil firm Chevron have cut output by around 273,000 barrels per day in the last six weeks because of the latest militant violence.