The latest blow in the oil-rich, though poverty-stricken Nigeria was leveled last week when a pipeline exploded near the largest city, Lagos. Some 200 people were killed and hundreds more injured. The intense heat from the explosion burned some bodies beyond recognition, said rescue officials at the scene.

The explosion was said to have been caused by Nigerians trying to illegally tap into the pipeline.

"If they decide to take that risk then they have to look at the attending consequences, and the blame for that cannot be put on the doorstep of anybody, least of all the government," Nigerian government spokesman Femi Fani Kayode told the BBC.

An estimated 2,000 people have been killed in similar blasts in recent years.

While the Nigerian government refused blame for the deadly blast, some still consider its leaders responsible for the fatalities caused by these types of accidents and the violence sparked by unrest over the oil issue.

Despite generating an estimate $300 billion in oil revenue since the 1970s, and being the world's eighth-largest oil exporter, the majority of Nigerians remain firmly ensconced in abject poverty.

The yawning divide between the country's small minority of haves and its vast population of have-nots, has become a breeding ground for discontent and rebellion.

In Nigeria's main oil city, Port Harcourt, the bodies of six policemen were found floating in a nearby river, each with at least one bullet wound, Nigerian news sources reported Monday. The apparent execution-style killings of the officers follow a recent pattern of violence perpetrated by groups claiming to be fighting for greater distribution of the country's oil wealth.

Militant attacks have been stepped up in recent weeks. Earlier this month three foreign oil workers were kidnapped and an American killed.

And in April, the self-styled Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta reiterated its threat to continue attacking oil installations.

Some experts assert that Nigeria's oil production capacity has been depleted by 20 percent due to the recent violence against foreign and state oil. However, other like Nigerian official Deji Ariyibi maintains the losses would amount to 50 percent of full production capacity.

"The happenings in the last three months have started having negative effects on the country through revenue accruable to the country," said Ariyibi said over the weekend. "It has forced down oil production to about 50 percent and if things continue this way, all parts of the country would feel it and this would not augur well for the country."

Ariyibi is not the only one with a grim assessment of the state of Nigerian oil.

"It's (Nigeria) is an ungodly mess," said Robert Ebel, chairman of the energy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "I don't see any solution in the near future."

The continuing reluctance by the Nigerian government to let oil revenue trickle down to the nation's vast poor signals the likely continuation of hostilities, he noted.

Coupled with high oil prices worldwide, the prize for Nigerian state oil and foreign companies, as well the militants, has become even more valuable, raising the stakes in both oil extraction and attacks on installations and their employees.

"At $70 a barrel there is a lot to fight over," Ebel said. "There's a lot to gain and a lot to be lost."

Nigerian officials have shown a reluctance to tackle the MEND issue head on likely because they can't or don't want to spend the resources on combating a militant group whose rank and file regularly disappear into the crowd after attacks.

"The opposition is so diverse ... it's hard to crack down on them when they can just melt away," Ebel said.