(Adds tanker name and other details)

By Austin Ekeinde

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Militants fighting for autonomy in Nigeria's oil-producing south detonated a remote controlled bomb on an oil tanker on Friday, causing a big fire.

It was the second rebel attack on Africa's largest oil industry in a week, but exports of crude oil were unaffected, industry sources said.

"There was an explosion and the tanker went up in flames," Police Commissioner Felix Ogbaudu told Reuters, adding that the cause was under investigation.

The Golden Lucy was preparing to discharge refined fuel at the main port in the southern city of Port Harcourt when it burst into flames after two loud explosions, witnesses said.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), an umbrella organisation for several militant groups, claimed responsibility.

"Freelance freedom fighters working inside the oil industry detonated a remote explosive device that caused the fire," the group said in an e-mail to the media.

Nobody was killed by the blast but several people received minor injuries, port sources said.

The city port has storage tanks for refined fuels, but is not involved in the export of crude oil. Nigeria's largest oil and gas export terminal at Bonny Island is 30 miles (50 km) away.

VIOLENCE INCREASES

Rebel violence around Port Harcourt has been rising in recent weeks after the collapse of peace talks with the government, and in the wake of an army raid on the hideout of a Port Harcourt militia boss last month.

Militant and security sources told Reuters this week that armed groups were building up weapons and supplies for a major attack on an oil facility.

Two people were injured on Wednesday when MEND-affiliated gunmen opened fire on six oil industry ships in the channel leading to the Bonny Island terminal.

The militants, who want to halt oil exports from Africa's top producer, demand regional autonomy over the vast natural resources in the Niger Delta, development of their impoverished region and compensation for decades of pollution.

Oil output has been running at 20 percent below capacity for two years since MEND launched a wave of bombings of oil pipelines, production plants and export terminals, and kidnapped foreign staff. Thousands of foreign workers have fled and many investments have been put on hold.

Vice President Goodluck Jonathan held a meeting on Thursday with elders and militants from the delta in an attempt to revive the collapsed talks.

He said he would assume leadership of a committee designed to lay the foundations for talks, and set an end-February deadline to conclude his work.

The delta representatives asked the government to stop army raids on militant hideouts and said the prolonged detention of a factional MEND leader in Angola on gun-running charges was an obstacle to progress. (Writing by Tom Ashby; Editing by Keith Weir)

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