(Adds Niger Delta Avengers statement, paragraphs 6-7)
By Tife Owolabi and Ulf Laessing
BODO/ABUJA, Nigeria, June 2 (Reuters) - Militants launchednew attacks in the Niger Delta on Thursday, vowing to bringNigeria's struggling oil industry to a total halt, and thepresident cancelled a long-awaited visit to the region.
The army said militants killed six people on Wednesday whenthey ambushed a boat belonging to state oil firm NNPC in theWarri area.
Separately, the Niger Delta Avengers group said it hadattacked two crude pipelines operated by Italy's ENI.
"At about 2:00 am today @NDAvengers blew up the Ogboinbirito Tebidaba and Clough Creek to Tebidaba Crude Oil pipelines inBayelsa State," the group said on Twitter.
"This is in line with our promise to all international oilcompanies and indigenous oil companies that Nigeria oilproduction will be zero."
But the NDA said in a statement late on Thursday that it wasnot responsible for the boat attack.
"Killing of sleeping soldiers is not our style," the NDAsaid in an emailed statement.
The Avengers group has claimed responsibility for otherrecent attacks on Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell facilities. A wave of such attacks have helped drive thecountry's oil output to a 20-year low.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari cancelled at the lastminute a visit planned for Thursday to the Delta, source of mostof Nigeria's crude.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made the trip in Buhari's placeto launch a cleanup programme in an area badly hit by oilspills, vowing to work with community leaders to end militantattacks.
POVERTY AND POLLUTION
No reason has been given for the cancellation of what wouldhave been Buhari's first visit to the region since taking officea year ago. Western allies and local officials have told theformer military chief that he needs to address poverty and oilpollution in the Delta to stop unrest.
"We are determined to put right the wrongs of the past,where the people of this land were treated unfairly and theenvironment unduly polluted and degraded," Osinbajo said in aspeech in the town of Bodo in the polluted Ogoniland area.
"The cleanup of this land will require change on the part ofall those who deal with the Niger Delta environment -particularly the oil companies and our communities," he said.
The Avengers have accused Buhari, a Muslim from northernNigeria, of ignoring the problems of the predominantly ChristianDelta.
Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. EnvironmentProgramme, joined Osinbajo at the ceremony. He said the cleanup"cannot happen overnight" but he hoped the government, oil firmsand locals could work together to reduce pollution. (Additional reporting by Felix Onuah in Abuja, Seun Sanni inLagos, Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsha and Ernest Scheyder inHouston; Writing by Ulf Laessing and Alexis Akwagyiram; Editingby Andrew Roche and Peter Cooney)
