*70,000 bpd deferred at Nembe creek trunkline

YENAGOA – Fresh oil leak has forced the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd, SPDC, to shut down its new $1.1 billion Nembe Creek Trunkline, NCTL.

Shell in a statement, Tuesday, attributed the leak to crude theft, with some 70,000 barrels of oil per day being deferred. This means that Shell is losing about $7.8 million daily for as long as the deferment lasts. The Anglo Dutch company hopes to complete repair of the line before the end of January 2012.

The statement did not say how much oil was spilled, but said: “More than 200 barrels of spilled oil have been recovered.”

The oil leak occurred on Christmas eve while Shell’s sister company, the Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, SNEPCo, was still struggling to contain the 40,000 oil spilled from its deepwater Bonga Floating Production Storage and Offloading, FPSO vessel. The clean up for the Bonga spill was concluded on December 27, a week after the incident occurred.

But Shell did not make this smaller volume leak public until Tuesday, when its statement said it was “mobilising to repair the new Nembe Creek Trunkline, NCTL, after crude theft leaks forced it to be shut down on December 24 last year.”

The statement added: “SPDC had confirmed the leak on the 90-kilometre line and quickly shut in some producing flow stations, while also isolating the facility. The NCTL evacuates majority of SPDC and third party crude oil production in Eastern Swamp operations to Bonny Terminal.

“A joint investigation conducted by the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR; the Bayelsa State Ministry of Environment; SPDC; and the community showed oil thieves had installed valves at two points near the Tora manifold in Nembe in Bayelsa State.”

Shell’s Vice President, Health Safety and Environment,HSE & Corporate Affairs, Sub-Saharan Africa, Mr. Tony Attah, was quoted as saying: “What is really worrying about this leak is that it happened on a facility which was commissioned in October 2009, to replace an old line which was repeatedly targeted by crude oil thieves. Sadly, the crude thieves continue to hinder efforts to maintain the integrity of key national oil and gas assets.

“The Nembe Creek Trunkline has the capacity to transport 600,000 barrels per day from 14 flow stations in the Niger Delta to the Bonny Export Terminal in Rivers State. The pipeline is a 95-kilometre pipeline system that traverses about 100 communities and settlements in remote swamp locations in six local government areas across Bayelsa and Rivers states.”