Citing security concerns, oil giant, Royal Dutch Shellhas declared a force majeure on exports of 130, 000barrels a day from Bonny Light oil terminal, Shell official sources told THISDAY yesterday that shipments would stop today (Thursday), as workers hadbeen unable to repair three pipeline leaks due to insecurity in the area.
The declaration of force majeure allows companies tosuspend the contractual obligations, such asdeliveries of oil and gas, following unforeseen events, without incurring penalties.
A spokesman of the company, Mr. Precious Okolobo stated last night that the pipeline leaks were first discovered in January and Shell has repaired one leak but has been unable to repair the other three due to the heightened insecurity in the area.
�Effective February 7, 2008, we (SPDC) declared Force Majeure on Bonny Light Off take programmes for the restof February and March 2008, following deferments caused by our inability to progress repair of three leaks on Nembe Creek trunkline. We had managed to repair one leak but are unable to repair the other three because of serious security challenges.We will resume the work as soon as it is safe to doso. The four leaks occurred within January 2008; a Joint investigation Visit will determine the cause andextent of the spills but the visit has yet to take place” he said.
The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs of the, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, confirmed recently that there was a problem in Bonny, which was likely to affect crude oil export.
Bonny Light oilfields produce around 400,000 barrelsper day, and the gasoline-rich sweet crude is popular among the world’s refiners.Sources said the affected pipeline feeds about 130,000 barrels per day to the Bonny Light export terminal.
The oil giant faced similar problems last month at its 380,000 bpd Forcados terminal, forcing it to haltexports after community members made preventedcontractors from carrying out repair on the twopipelines.Okolobo also stated that the company would continuedialoguing with the Federal Government, the majorpartner in its joint venture onshore, and with theother JV partners on the One Shell project, adding �wehave decided that, for now, we will not make furtherannouncements about the various stages of the projectuntil we have fully engaged the Government agenciesand partners�.
Feb72008