THE HAGUE, July 28, 2008 (AFP) - The Shell oil group said Monday it had decided to reduce some of its production running through a pipeline in southern Nigeria damaged in an attack claimed by MEND fighters.

Spokesman Rainer Winzenried told AFP that one of the pipelines had been affected by an attack and the company had decided to reduce part of the production to avoid further damage to the environment.

He declined to say by how much output was being reduced, stressing that the amount should not be exagerated because the announcement could affect the price of oil.

He said that the duration of the reduction would depend on when Shell could have access to the scene to make repairs.

Earlier in Lagos, a Shell spokesman had said that the attack, claimed by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), had hit the Kula pipeline in the Niger Delta.