The two major trunk lines
earlier shut by the oil multinational some eight days ago have therefore
resumed operations, raising hope for the October export programme. Shell is
expected to export seven crude oil cargoes of 221,000 bpd (a total of about
6.85 million barrels) of Bonny Light in October.
The Corporate Media
Relations Manager of SPDC, Mr. Precious Okolobo, in a statement
yesterday said: “SPDC operated Joint Venture today
(September 2) lifted the force majeure on Bonny Light exports following the
repair and re-opening of the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) and Nembe Creek
Trunkline (NCTL.) The TNP was repaired after a joint investigation visit found
that a leak was caused by an illegal connection that failed. A number of crude
theft points were removed from the NCTL.”
Shell Joint Venture had
declared force majeure on Bonny Light exports effective August 27, 2015,
following the shutdown of both the Trans Niger Pipeline and Nembe Creek
Trunkline
The leak was discovered on
the TNP at Oloma in Rivers State.
The Trans Niger Pipeline,
according to Shell, transports around 180,000 barrels per day of crude oil to
the Bonny Export Terminal and is part of the gas liquid evacuation
infrastructure, critical for continued domestic power generation and liquefied
gas exports.
The NCTL pipeline, with
about 140,000 barrels of oil per day capacity, had also suffered series of
attack in recent times. Total output from the facilities is about 320,000bpd.
Shell had claimed that
crude oil theft, sabotage and illegal refining are the main sources of
pollution in the Niger Delta, which caused about 75 per cent of spill incidents
from the joint venture pipelines in 2014.
An average of 37,000 bpd
were stolen from the SPDC network in 2014, with an additional 110,000 bpd of
production deferred due to illegal interference with pipelines and other
illegal activities such as theft of well head equipment. (guardian)
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