LAGOS: Nigerian militants said they destroyed a strategic manifold owned by US oil group Chevron hours after they claimed an attack on Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell.

"The strategic Okan manifold which controls about 80 percent of Chevron Nigeria Limited off-shore crude oil to its BOP Crude Loading Platform was blown up at about 2045 hours on Sunday, June 5, 2009," the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said in a statement.

Chevron was not immediately available to confirm the attack, coming after a similar attack on Shell's facility in the volatile Niger delta.