The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), has alerted the Federal Government that attacks on the its oil pipelines have continued in spite of the truce between the government and militants, which has reduced oil output in Delta State to 30,000 barrels per day against a capacity of 300,000 barrels per day.
President Umaru Yar’Adua’s amnesty offer, which ended in October, seemed to have brought relative peace to the Niger Delta region, resulting in a steady increase in Nigeria’s crude oil and condensate production.
Nigerian Tribune however, gathered that Shell in a production update made available to the government, specifically stated that since the beginning of December, there had been repeated attacks on its Trans-Forcados Trunkline (TFP).
Shell said that as recent as December 18, it discovered additional eight damaged points to the trunk line. “The current total production from Delta State is about 30,000 barrels per day as against a capacity of 300,000 barrels per day. “This is to say the least, a huge loss to the nation,” the company added.
The TFP, which feeds into the Forcados oil export terminal, was first sabotaged in June during an attack carried out by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).
Shell said the pipeline outage over the past six months resulted in the loss of about 20 million barrels of oil which translated to a loss of $1.5 billion in monetary terms.
Attacks on oil production facilities slashed the nation’s oil production from 2.6 million barrels per day in early 2006 to around 1.7 million barrels per day prior to a government’s amnesty deal with militants to end years of unrest.
But industry analysts have expressed concern that delay in progressing on the second phase of the amnesty programme, which includes rehabilitation and job provision for the former militants, could trigger a resurgence in violence in the Niger Delta.
On December 12, MEND said it carried out a warning strike against Royal Dutch Shell or a Chevron-operated oil pipeline over the lack of progress in peace talks with the government.