By Sebastine Obasi

NIGERIA’S trauma of going through a year – long closure of Trans Forcados Pipeline, its major crude export line will soon be over, as an alternative line, the Amukpe Escravos Pipeline Project, AEPP, is expected to come on stream before the end of 2017.

The Pan Ocean Oil Corporation project, awarded to Fenog Nigeria Limited, an indigenous company, involves the installation of 20 inches pipeline across 67 kilometers route. It has capacity to handle 160,000 barrels of oil per day, BOPD, with remote manifolds to accommodate third party crude oil evacuation to the Escravos. The project also entails the installation of continuous horizontal directional drilling, HDD, method to install the entire pipeline length for the purpose of security from the act of vandalism which is prevalent in its domain.

Explaining the rationale behind the project, Mr. John Okusolubo, Project Lead, AEPP and Senior Pipeline Engineer, Pan Ocean, said that last year, many companies had tough time because they could not export their products due to the militancy induced closure of the Trans Forcados Pipeline. He said, “The primary objective of this project is to make sure we do not have another year – long stoppage of export activities. It is very obvious that we just have to think out of the box.  Because we think ahead of our operations and our business, we have to be dynamic in the way we reason.

“A school of thought has it that you do not put your eggs in one basket. Another school of thought says that you can put your eggs in one basket and watch over it. Our own experience has shown that it does not work putting all of them in one basket and watching over them.

“We have got to have an alternative. We have to think of a better way of doing things. That is why we have alternative to the Trans Forcados Pipeline, which has been our main means of exporting our crude as a joint venture, JV, but that has not really helped us for a long time. “We felt it is time for us to have an alternative to that line, such that if that line has some difficulties, we have other options of exporting our crude and not just shutting down as it used to be.”

Okusolubo explained that with the completion of the project, Pan Ocean will be empowering other operators in the industry to increase their crude evacuation capabilities.

According to him, “With its partnership with an indigenous company, Fenog, on the pipeline project, Pan Ocean further highlights its commitment and contributions towards developing indigenous capacity and increased participation for Nigerian companies in the oil and gas sector.”

The project is an alternative to the Trans Forcados Pipeline, which was the object of several militant attacks last year, such that for the most part of 2016 it remained shut down. The first attack that stopped the flow of crude came in February 2016, followed by another in July. Repairs continued until October and the pipeline was restarted, only to be shut down before the month ended, after a bombing from a new militant group that had emerged in the Niger Delta, the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate. This bombing was followed by two more in November, which crippled the pipeline for several months. The renewed violence came at a time when Nigeria was ramping up its crude oil output, with the Forcados terminal, among others, restarting operations after several months of force majeure after earlier attacks.

The Trans Forcados pipeline has a daily capacity of 240,000 bpd, with average daily flows ranging between 200,000 bpd and 240,000 bpd. Shell, operates both the pipeline and the terminal.