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Tag: shell

  • Shell shuts down two key pipelines over sabotage

    Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell has shut down two key supply pipelines in Nigeria because of leaks and sabotage and declared a “force majeure” on crude oil exports.

    Shell’s subsidiary in Nigeria SPDC said in a statement the force majeure became effective from Thursday “following the shutdown of both the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) and Nembe Creek Trunkline (NCTL).”

    The two pipelines take crude to the Bonny Light exports terminal, one of the country’s  main oil terminals.

    The company said a leak was reported on the TNP at Oloma in southern Rivers state, “while the NCTL is shut down for the removal of crude theft points.”

    Shell said it was working to repair and reopen the two key pipelines as quickly as possible.

    “Force majeure” is a legal term releasing a company from contractual obligations when faced with circumstances beyond its control.

    Shell, a major oil operator in Nigeria, did not disclose the volume of output affected by the incident.

    The company has blamed repeated oil thefts and sabotage of key pipelines as the major cause of spills and pollution in the oil-producing region.

    It is estimated that Nigeria loses about $6billion worth of crude to thieves annually.

  • Bonny youths protest against Shell

    The Jumbo Major House Youths Association of Grand Bonny is unhappy with oil giant  Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) over alleged unpaid land rent money.

    The youths said SPDC has occupied the land owned by the Jumbo and Brown families since 1958 .

    The youth president of Jumbo Major House,  Mr. Dagogo Anims Jumbo, said : “We are protesting today because SPDC has failed to honour our agreement. They  occupied our land owned by the Jumbo and Brown families since 1958 and the rent had accumulated and there was no effort so far by the company to settle their debt.

    “We are advising them to pay us our rent or see the other side of us; we are peace loving youths. We don’t believe in violence and at the sometime we don’t want to be tempted to take a harsh decision against them.”

    He said apart from those mandated by the elders of the families nobody has the permission of the head of Jumbo major house to speak or negotiate on behalf of the family.

    He noted that the youths were protesting against Shell because the oil giant company had failed to comply with their agreement, adding that any money paid to a wrong hand would not be accepted as part of the rent due to the Jumbo Major House.

     

  • U.S. sanctions put Gazprom, Shell plans in jeopardy

    Shell and Gazprom signed an agreement in June to develop a strategic alliance in the gas sector, ranging from upstream–exploration and production, to sales, including possible asset swaps.

    Development of the Yuzhno-Kirinskoye field on the island of Sakhalin in the Pacific, a project known as Sakhalin-3, has been seen as central to that alliance as it would allow the two companies expand their sole existing LNG venture, Sakhalin-2, located nearby.

    State-owned Gazprom was believed to be considering selling a stake in Sakhalin-3 to Shell, which confirmed only last week that it was interested in buying a share, possibly through an asset swap, according to Bloomberg. It may now have to rethink those plans.

    The U.S. government said it was restricting exports, re-exports and transfers of technology and equipment to the Yuzhno-Kirinskoye field.

    Shell, with considerable assets in the United States, would face consequences if it went against the sanction, as would other potential foreign investors.

    U.S. officials have repeatedly said that sanctions on Russia’s energy sector – part of broader penalties imposed since 2014 over Moscow’s involvement in Ukraine – would target new projects, not existing supplies as that could cause a spike in global energy prices.

  • Nigerian, UK firms explore opportunities at Shell’s business summit

    A total of 100 delegates representing 56 companies from Nigeria and the United Kingdom explored opportunities for collaboration at the annual Nigeria-UK Supplier Engagement programme organised by Shell Nigeria Exploration Company Limited (SNEPCo) in conjunction with the United Kingdom Trade and Investment (UKTI).

    The event which held in Lagos weekend, according to Shell’s Corporate Media Relations Manager Precious Okolobo brought together companies engaged in a wide variety of activities in the oil and gas industry including engineering, maintenance, fabrication and subsea support services. The UK delegation, which included Nigerian experts in the diaspora who SNEPCo had reached in previous business summits in Aberdeen and London, first met with Shell Companies in Nigeria companies on areas of need and technical gaps.

  • Shell Arctic oil drilling to begin soon

    Oil and gas giant Shell is expected to begin drilling for oil in the Arctic within the next two weeks.

    Thirty ships left Dutch Harbour in Alaska last week for the Arctic to support two initial exploratory wells.

    The company has already committed about $7bn (£4.5bn) to the controversial project, and is confident it will find huge quantities of oil in the region.

    But if the initial wells do not find oil, Shell will contemplate walking away from the region entirely.

    The US Department of the Interior gave the green light to Shell to begin Arctic oil exploration in May this year, and the Anglo-Dutch group clearly believes it will get the remaining necessary permits in the next week or two.

    The initial two wells will be in relatively shallow water of about 40 to 50m deep, off the coast of Alaska, and they will use conventional drilling techniques. The company should know whether these wells find sufficient quantities of oil to justify further exploration by the end of 2016.

    By this time, it will have spent another $1.4bn on the project.

    Experts believe that more than 20 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas resources can be found in the Arctic.

    Environmentalists argue vehemently that the oil should be left well alone, as the risks of damaging this pristine environment are too great.

    Shell believes that despite the environmental risks, oil can be extracted safely – oil that it argues will be needed to meet burgeoning demand for energy across the world over the coming decades.

    Given the recent slump in the price of oil, which has fallen by almost half in the last year to $65 a barrel, many believe Arctic oil exploration is no longer economically viable. Some experts say the break-even point for Arctic oil is closer to $100.

    However, Shell believes that longer term, Arctic oil will be competitive. It is unlikely that the company will be producing commercial quantities of oil before 2030, if all goes to plan.

    Shell originally found natural gas in the Arctic in 1989, and it is now going back to find oil.

    It had hoped to start looking much earlier, but suspended its plans for the region two years ago after a rig ran aground in Alaska.O

  • Shell remembers Oloibiri in Centenary celebration

    Oloibiri came alive in an event organised in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, by the Shell Producing Development Company (SPDC). Who will forget Oloibiri in a hurry? It has always been said that the history of Nigeria will be incomplete without devoting copious chapters to Oloibiri.

    Though tucked away into the creeks of Ogbia Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, the community is a symbol of the Nigerian economy. It is the community where crude oil was first discovered in commercial quantity in the country in 1956.

    Oloibiri Oilfield was discovered on Sunday 15, January 1956 by Shell Darcy. It became the first completed commercial crude oil well in Nigeria which exported crude in February 1958.

    Despite occupying a central place in the country’s nervous system, Oloibiri appears forgotten. Only a relic of dry and abandoned oil well reminds visitors and residents in the area that the community gave Nigeria her oil-producing status. In fact, the discovery of oil in Oloibiri ended 50 years of unsuccessful oil exploration in the country by various companies and launched Nigeria into the limelight of petro-state.

    But Shell has remembered Oloibiri in the Centenary celebration of Nigeria. For Shell, celebrating 100 years of the country’s existence will not be complete without undertaking people-oriented programme and projects for Oloibiri and its environs.

    The company in a special intervention for Oloibiri is focusing on providing affordable and quality health service delivery tagged, Oloibiri Field Health Intervention Project (O-HIP). Shell through the project will build four primary health centres and one general hospital.

    But the recent event was designed to start the project by selecting a logo to drive the initiative. The company decided to draft pupils in various secondary schools in Ogbia to participate in a competition designed to select a befitting logo. Shell is of the opinion that involving pupils will enhance artistic skills, promote intellectual development among students and further enhance community ownership of the project.

    So, pupils selected from 10 secondary schools, out of 152 entries received for the exercise, marched to Yenagoa to participate in the logo competition.

    The schools which took part in the competition are Oloibiri Grammar School; Federal Government Girls’ College, Imiringi; Government Secondary School,Ogbia Town; Community Secondary School,Emakalaka.

    Others are Community Secondary School,Oruma; Community Secondary School,Otuoke; Community Comprehensive Secondary School,Elebele; Community Secondary School,Otuokpoti; Anyama Ogbia Secondary School and Community Secondary School, Otakeme.

    The students were led to the venue of the competition by their art teachers and other representatives of their schools. Two students from each school displayed their works for the perusal of judges selected from the Ministry of Education. The students explained the symbols in their piece of art while the judges took time to scrutinize the works using the rules of simplicity, design, harmony, layout, pattern and presentation to give their verdicts.

    At the end, Micah Oboaviojake,a JSS2 student of Community Secondary School, Elebele, emerged the overall winner. Micah was very vocal in his presentation and demonstrated knowledge of his work which captured all the elements of the project in a simple form.

    Also, Chiamaka Ezeigwe an SS2 student of Federal Government Girls’ College, Imiringi, came second. The third position went to Ekeke Jenji, a student of Community Secondary School Oruma. Wilcox ThankGod of Community Secondary School Ogbia Town,came fourth and finally, the fifth position was given to Apreala Mildred,an SS2 students of Federal Government Girls’ College Imiringi.

    Each of the winners went home with an Ipad 2, android phones and other gift items. In fact, everybody who partook in the exercise received gift items and certificates of participation. The winners were described as youth ambassadors of the Oloibiri health project. They are expected to be at the forefront of telling the health project story as students and community members.

    In his remarks, the acting Regional Community Health Manager, SPDC, Dr. Akin Fajola, referred to the strudels as the ages of change. He thanked the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Ayibatonye Owei, for honouring the company, describing him as the brains behind the health project.

    Referring to the commissioner, he said: “He is a humble man who has the healthcare of Bayelsa at heart. We saw the passion he displayed in this project and in the health sector.”

    He said the health project was designed for three years adding that the company would involve more people and groups. He said that Shell its committed to the health care of its host communities.

    He said: “Oloibbiri is key to the centenary celebration and healthcare is central to any form of development. We want to do something different. It is going to be a healthcare pilot programme that others will copy. It is a project that will address the primary and secondary levels of healthcare and also look at the social determinant of health.”

    He reiterated that winners of the logo would be the youth ambassadors of the project. He asked the ambassadors to use their camera phones to take health-related pictures and upload them in a website dedicated to the project. He said the project would include establishing school health clubs, donating first aid boxes, books on HIV/AIDS, school bags and insecticide-treated nets to schools.

    On his part, Owei said the centenary project is an important milestone in Bayelsa and Nigeria. “Everybody knows the significance of Oloibiri. A movie is coming out on Oloibiri. Shell decided to champion the centenary project which focuses on healthcare”.

    He said the company should be commended for selecting students to participate in the project through the logo competition. He said the government through his kkinsugry has keyed into the health project.

    “The logo is significant because it is giving us an umbrella in which to operate. It is also significant because SPDC wants young students to compete. Education is very important in human development,” he said.

  • Shell’s controversial oil blocks

    Shell’s controversial oil blocks

    Who  should operate the oil blocks divested by Shell? The Nigerian Petroleum  Development Company (NPDC) says it has the financial and tehnical capacity to run them. But, its Joint Venture (JV) partners in the private sector say it cannot. They argue that the oil assets are “grossly” underutilised under NPDC, adding  that “this is impacting negatively on our investment in the oil acreages.”  They want the blocks transferred   to them. EMEKA UGWUANYI reports.

    In the last two months, the battle over the operatorship of some of the Shell’s divested oil blocks in oil mining leases (OMLs) 30, 34, 40, 42 has been a major issue in the oil industry in the country.

    Trouble started when the Federal Government handed over its 55 per cent equity stakes in the oil assets to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), which is the exploration and production arm of state-run oil firm, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). The remaining stakes of 45 per cent in the Joint Venture (JV) oil blocks held by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Total and Agip were sold to some indigenous companies that came together as a consortia.

    Aside  Seplat Petroleum Development Company that bought the very first set of divestment in oil mining leases (OMLs) 4, 38 and 41, and was granted the operatorship of the assets, the government transferred the operatorship of subsequent divested assets to the NPDC.

    However, very recently, the government withdrew the operatorship of OML 42 from the NPDC to the private sector JV partner, a situation that irked the NPDC workers and compelled them to embark on strike. The strike stalled the transfer of the operatorship of the remaining three oil blocks to the private sector JV partners, which lingered until the President Goodluck Jonathan’s led administration ended last month.

    The indigenous private sector JV partners of NPDC are Neconde Energy Limited (OML 42), Elcrest Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (OML 40), Shoreline Natural Resources Limited (OML 30), ND Western Limited (OML 34) and First Hydrocarbon Nigeria FHN/Afren (OML 26).

    These companies are of the view that due to bureaucratic bottlenecks associated with public owned companies,  NPDC is constrained technically and financially to optimise output from the oil blocks adding that NPDC as a firm, cannot borrow money from banks to conduct its business and also cannot take decision on crucial issue of production without getting clearance from its parent company, the  NNPC.

    As private sector companies that have made huge investments, non-optimisation of the assets is affecting their bottom-line and the economy, the investors lamented.

    The buyers of SPDC’s divested stakes in OMLs 30,34, 40 and 42 cite the achievements Seplat as operator of its acquired oil blocks. They said if the operatorship had remained with NPDC, Seplat couldn’t have recorded meaningful progress. When Seplat acquired Shell’s stakes in the three blocks in 2010, the combined production was less than 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) but as at last year, the production has been ramped up to 70,000 bpd while also increasing the natural gas output significantly.

    A source in the NNPC, however, said the truth is that NPDC doesn’t have the capacity. ‘Imagine a company that was operating just one block and got eight oil blocks in one fell swoop. They have been advised several times to go into partnership with other companies to improve capacity and efficiency but they held on to status quo.

    “Frankly speaking, we don’t have the financial and requisite personnel to manage these blocks and this is the reason for the transfer of the operatorship to the indigenous firms in joint venture partnership with them NPDC. NPDC was unable to absorb the multinational oil firms’ workers in the divested assets resulting in acute personnel deficit and fortunately, the indigenous JV partners absorbed them. Besides, NPDC doesn’t have the capacity to take loans from banks for their operations unlike their JV partners, which puts a serious financial constraint on the firm,” the source said.

    The indigenous JV partners of NPDC that are expecting that operatorship of their blocks may be granted include Elcrest (OML 40), Shoreline (OML 30), ND Western (OML 34) and FHN/Afren (OML 26). The source said the firms have the technical capacities, personnel and financial strength to operate the assets and also have the ability to invest billions of naira into drilling of new wells and multi-field developments, which will increase oil and gas production and revenue to the nation.

    Despite the strike embarked upon by NPDC workers, the private sector JV partners are not relenting in the transfer of the operatorship from NPDC. The Nation, however, spoke to some NPDC workers in confidence on the veracity of the claims by their independent JV partners.

    The NPDC workers said the company is being unjustly undermined adding that it has the capacity and personnel to manage the oil blocks. They listed the achievements the company has recorded in the past including some of the Shell’s divested assets especially OMLs 30 and 34.

    They said OML 34 is among the assets the NPDC acquired from SPDC in 2012 during its divestment programme.  The asset is predominantly a gas producing field with Utorogu non-associated gas (NAG) 1 and Ughelli East (UGHE) gas plants as the two running plants prior to the acquisition. Utorogu NAG 1 and UGHE gas plants have an installed capacity of 360 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscf/d) and 90 mmscf/d) respectively.

    Prior to the takeover by NPDC, the former operator SPDC, was producing an average of 270 mmscf/d and 60mmscf/d) from NAG 1 and UGHE plants respectively. However with the recent improvement drive and overall service commitment by the management and staff of NPDC, production has steadily ramped up to 360mmscf/d and 70mmscf/d for NAG 1 and UGHE plants respectively. Currently NPDC produces 420mmscf/d from the two plants, they added.

    “It should be noted that this is a record that has never been achieved since the field came into existence in the 1970s. Production is still ramping up, having attained 430mmscf/d. In addition, plans are currently underway to further increase production from the two fields with the completion of Utorogu NAG 2 plant with an installed capacity of 150mmscf/d. NPDC’s focus is to ramp up, grow and sustain production from the three plants at 450mmscf/d by the third quarter of 2015 and this would make NPDC the second largest gas producer in Nigeria.

    “NPDC wishes to achieve this feat through the aggressive gas development campaign currently going-on in OML 34. This involves drilling of gas wells and completing/commissioning of the 150mmscf/d capacity NAG II plant in the short term. The NAG II plant is 96 per cent completed as at 4th June, 2015. The company’s medium term plan is to deliver about 600mmscf/d of gas to the national grid to support the Federal Government’s gas to power aspiration by the end of 2015. NPDC took over the operatorship of OML 34 from SPDC on Monday, 31st December, 2012.

    “Also at takeover from SPDC, daily oil production was 10,032 bpd and has since increased to 22,000 bpd. We have increased gas production in the asset from an average of 295mmscf/d in 2012 to 360mmscf/d for NAG 1 and 70mmscf/d for UGHE Plant, altogether producing 430mmscf/d making the asset the largest single supplier of gas to the country’s domestic market. We also successfully shut down and carried out improvement job for NAG 1and UGHE Plant to revamp work and boost production, successfully drilled and completed three wells to ramp up gas production.

    “NPDC took over operatorship of OML 30 from SPDC on 1st February, 2013. NPDC holds 55 per cent equity shares while its Joint Venture partner, Shoreline Natural Resources has the remaining 45 per cent participatory shares. The average daily net production as at takeover from SPDC was about 20,982 bpd. Today, production in OML 30 has increased to 60,000bpd under the operatorship of NPDC. The oil block’s flow-stations are all operational now.”

    The NPDC workers also stated the company achieved successful re-entry into Uzere community to open-up Uzere-West field with a locked-in potential of 14,000 bpd, rehabilitation of eight units of 5.2mmscf/d gas lift compressors and commissioning of new compressors to ensure adequate production uptime and increase in gas lift capacity. Other achievements include successful installations for proper hydrocarbon accounting; successful negotiation on Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMOU) with 112 communities of OML 30 together with Delta State Government to ensure uninterrupted production   took over Oleh Field Logistic Base (FLB) and deployed personnel to fully man all the flowstations and Ughelli production station.

    We also developed and secured approval for the AFELOROW (Afiesere, Olomoro-Oleh, Oroni and Oweh) fields development plan, and ensure proper management of the Trans Forcados Pipeline, the workers said. They recalled that the former NPDC Managing Director, Mr. Iyowuna Briggs, in an interview with energy correspondents during a facility tour, said taking over the operatorship of the oil fields came with enormous challenges, but the state-owned company was keeping the promise to ensure that the fields remained productive.

    Briggs said: “It is clear right from the beginning that the challenges faced by the NPDC are enormous, following the divestment of OMLs 34 and 40 on January 1, 2013, and OML 30 on February 1, 2013. For example, five days after the takeover of the operatorship of OML 30, the Oroni and Olomoro flow stations were forcefully shut down by the members of the Igbide and Olomoro communities respectively. “Oroni flow station was eventually shut down for over 50 days. This resulted in the deferment of production amounting to over 115,000 barrels. Other shutdowns of production in various fields had impeded the attainment of the company’s production target of 135,000 barrels of oil per day for the fiscal year 2013. Consequently, over the past one year, NPDC had witnessed a drastic drop in its daily oil production from about 135,000bpd to 115,000bpd leading to a substantial loss of revenues.”

    In spite of this, Briggs said the NPDC was producing between 65,000 and 70,000 barrels of oil per day before it took over the assets, and this had since gone up to 140,000bpd with a target to hit 160,000bpd by the end of 2014. He stated that NPDC would spend a minimum of $1.8billion per annum on capital expenditure over a two-year period. He explained that the company would drill 18 oil wells across its oil assets in 2014, stressing that it currently maintains an interest in 28 OMLs in the country.

    He said: “NPDC drilled less than 10 wells over a five-year period ended October 2012. However, we drilled about six to seven wells between then and 2013 and we are going to be drilling up to 18 wells in 2014.” Briggs said NPDC then had the capacity to produce 140,000 bpd adding that it had been delivering 410 million metric standard cubic feet of gas per day into the domestic gas.

     

     

     

     

  • Shell declares force majeure on Forcados crude exports

    Shell declares force majeure on Forcados crude exports

    Shell has declared force majeure on exports of Nigeria’s Forcados crude oil.

    According to Reuters, Shell declared force majeure on the evening on May 5 following “a series of leaks” in the Trans Forcados pipeline that brings oil to the export terminal. The pipeline is operated by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    Several cargoes of Forcados for May loading were still on offer, with around 189,000 barrels per day (bpd) scheduled for export in six cargoes. The June export programme, with a total of 158,000 bpd, had not yet started trading, sources said.

    An overhang of light sweet crudes in the Atlantic Basin has depressed differentials to dated Brent and limited the impact of recent supply disruptions on some West African crude oil grades, the report added.

  • Shell, Bayelsa communities and sabotage

    There is no end in sight to the problems between the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and its host communities in the Niger Delta region. In fact, the length of Shell pipelines criss-crossing the region defines the complications of issues and widespread human relationship breakdown confronting the company.

    For instance, communities in Bayelsa State are always at daggers’ drawn with Shell over oil spill-related matters. Ikarama a community in Okordia clan, Yenagoa Local Government Area, is always in the news for oil spills. The environment has since decayed from spills caused mostly by sabotage.

    Recently, the communities around Kolo Creek Manifold operated by Shell in Ogbia Local Government Area, cried foul over massive spillage of oil into their environment. The spill was first reported on April 15.

    Some residents lamented that the Kolo creek oil field owned by SPDC has been discharging crude into the environment. A resident of Imiringi community in Ogbia Local Government Area, Mr. Anthony Okputu, said the spill had devastated farmland and vegetation in the area.

    Okputu said: “We do not know exactly when the oil leak started but we saw crude leaking from the pipeline into the road and when we got there soldiers had already cordoned off the whole area.

    “They did not allow us to get near to find out the possible cause of the leak on the pipeline. We woke up this early morning to see this in our community.

    “I believe that the soldiers must have reported the incident so that they can shut down the pipeline crude feed to forestall further damage to the environment, but oil is still gushing out of the line”.

    The communities sustained their momentum of cries. They accused Shell of not responding quickly to their plight and called on the state government to compel the company to come to their aide.

    They called for a Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) to unravel the cause of the spill. They had initially thought that the oil leak was caused by the company’s equipment failure. They were indeed looking forward to indicting Shell.

    Following their outcries, officials of the Bayelsa State Government led by the Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Iniruo Wills, visited the spill site. The officials including Wills assessed the site and lamented increasing incidences of oil and gas spills from platforms operated by multinational oil companies in the state.

    The therefore, therefore, threatened that henceforth multinational companies will not escape punishment for any oil and gas spills within the state.

    He said: “Whatever the cause of the spill, whether it is caused by sabotage or equipment failure, we will have to carefully think of the next thing to do.

    “There has to be consequences. Even if it is (caused by) sabotage, that does not mean that everyone concerned is free from consequences because, clearly, there is a pattern. Almost on a daily basis, there is one oil spill or the other in Bayelsa State.”

    The commissioner insisted that the government and the people of the state would no longer tolerate incessant pollution of their environment.

    He said: “This is yet another demonstration of how oil and gas production in Nigeria, especially in the Niger Delta and Bayelsa State where we are right now, is done.

    “This is how it threatens our environment, how it is a danger to our people, to our communities, life, public health and even to economic activities

    “You can see in the backdrop across the road, you can see vegetation, you can see economic crops all over the place, you can see how crude oil splashed all over them.

    “If proper precaution is not taken in terms of protecting or even clearing the affected area, you can imagine how affected the food chain and economic cycle proceeding from there, the hazard involved. This will end up affecting people’s dinning tables”, Wills added.

     

    Who caused the spill?

     

    Though the communities and even the government seemed to have pointed accusing fingers at Shell, emerging facts have shown that equipment failure was not the cause of the spill. The JIV report showed that unknown persons sabotaged the manifold.

    The JIV comprises officials of operating oil firms, Ministry of Environment, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) and representatives of impacted communities.

    Shell’s spokesperson Mr. Joseph Obari said a report of the JIV revealed that unknown persons cut out a section of the metal protection to the manifold. Obari said the saboteurs, according to the report, removed components of the pressure control system and opened the isolation valves, resulting in a spill.

    He said the volume of spilled oil was estimated at 27 barrels, affecting mainly the manifold grounds and part of the surrounding vegetation.

    He said: “SPDC stopped the leak soon after it occurred, deployed effective containment and began the recovery of oil.

    “No chemical dispersant has been applied. The containment and oil recovery activities involved the use of booms, absorbent pads and vacuum truck for evacuation of recovered oil.

    “Oil spill response activities are continuing while remediation will commence after initial clean-up has been done.”

    Obari further said that leak and fire were reported on the Kolo Creek–Rumuekpe trunk line, about 5kms from the manifold, on Monday.

    “The fire has been extinguished; site observation confirmed a recently excavated ditch at the fire point.

    “SPDC has expressed concern at the brazen damage of its facilities in parts of the Delta. It commended the Bayelsa State Government for its support and called on communities and other stakeholders to join hands in the efforts to discourage the trend”.

    Many believe it is high time communities in the Niger Delta, especially Bayelsa, stopped sabotaging oil facilities especially knowing its implications on the environment. It is foolhardy for locals to destroy the environment where they live and derive their livelihoods and then turn around to blame oil companies.

  • Shell: sabotage caused Bayelsa creek’s oil spill

    The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) yesterday said the oil spill that occurred at its Kolo Creek Manifold in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State on April 15 was caused by equipment sabotage.

    SPDC’s spokesperson Joseph Obari said a report of the Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) showed that unknown persons cut out a section of the metal protection to the manifold.

    Obari said the saboteurs, according to the report, removed components of the pressure control system and opened the isolation valves, resulting in a spill.

    The spokesman said the volume of spilled oil was estimated at 27 barrels, which affected mainly the manifold grounds and part of the surrounding vegetation.

    He explained that the investigation was led by the National Oil Spill Detection Regulation Agency, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) with the representatives of Bayelsa State Ministry of Environment, host communities and SPDC officials.

    He said: “SPDC stopped the leak soon after it occurred, deployed effective containment and began the recovery of oil.

    “No chemical dispersant has been applied. The containment and oil recovery activities involved the use of booms, absorbent pads and vacuum truck for evacuation of recovered oil.”

    “Oil spill response activities are continuing while remediation will commence after initial clean-up has been done.”

    Obari added that the leak and the resultant fire were reported on the Kolo Creek–Rumuekpe trunk line, about five kilometres from the manifold, on Monday.

    He said: “The fire has been extinguished; the site observation confirmed a recently excavated ditch at the fire point.

    “SPDC has expressed concern at the brazen damage of its facilities in parts of the Delta. It commended the Bayelsa State Government for its support and called on communities and other stakeholders to join hands in the efforts to discourage the trend.”