Oil major, Royal Dutch Shell, said it suffered another major oil spill on Monday, which had resulted in production cut back of 187,000 barrels per day.
�There was a spill at Nembe Creek Trunk Line, which led to a total output loss of 187,000 barrels per day. Ten flowstations were closed down to enable the company to effect necessary repairs,� a Shell official told AFP.
He said the spill occurred on Sunday, and that company engineers and experts had been sent to �assess and contain� its spread.
But he could not explain the cause of the spill. �We are still investigating. The immediate concern is to stop the spill. This is why we had to shut down our operations in the eastern zone,� he said, and promised that prompt action was being taken to contain the leak.
Confirming the incident, the Shell office in Lagos, said the spill had been controlled by late afternoon, adding that the production cut was merely, �a precautionary measure to prevent further leakage into the environment.�
Shell, Nigeria�s major oil operator, accounting for around half of the country�s daily output of some 2.6million barrels, was already losing some 477,000 barrels because of the unrest in the Niger Delta.