Nigeria’s oil production has suffered yet another setback as the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) Wednesday shut in some chunks of its crude oil production following a fire that erupted on its Okordia-Rumuekpe oil pipeline in Ikarama, Bayelsa State.
The fire incident came barely 24 hours after the company received reports of oil spill on the line.
SPDC spokesman, Mr. Precious Okolobo, confirmed via a text message yesterday that “some production has been shut in” but would not disclose the actual volume of crude affected in the latest incident.
Between June and yesterday, the company had recorded eight oil spills, often linked to sabotage.
Vice-President, Health Safety and Environment and Corporate Affairs, Shell Sub-Saharan Africa, Mr. Tony Attah, said recently that the company recorded six separate oil spill incidents on the Okordia-Rumuekpe trunk line between August 2 and 15 this year, all from hacksaw cuts by unknown persons.
Okolobo stated that the oil giant mobilised a fire team to the place upon the receipt of the news of the inferno, while a Joint Investigation Team visit has been planned for today to determine the cause of the fire.
He said: “We had received reports of the spill on the line yesterday (Tuesday) and were mobilising for the investigation of the cause when the news of the fire came in today (yesterday). We will now work to put out the fire before investigation and repairs.”
On August 18, unknown persons reportedly set fire on the same pipeline, a development which also resulted in production deferment.
The 33-km line, which receives crude oil from two flow stations, had been shut down until the SPDC team repaired the leak points on August 20, after about 100 community women initially blocked access to the spill site.
The SPDC last week expressed concern over rising sabotage incidents in its areas of operation.
The company said the increasing cases of sabotage at Ikarama were impacting on the environment, the personal safety and wellbeing of the communities.
In its August 2011 report, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) accused Shell and other oil firms of systematically contaminating a 1,000 sq km (386 sq mile) area of Ogoniland in the Niger Delta, with disastrous consequences for human health and wildlife.
The report said the devastating oil spills in the oil-rich region over the past five decades would cost $1 billion to rectify and take up to 30 years to clean up.
Shell has however maintained that more than 75 per cent of all oil spill incidents and more than 70 per cent of all oil spilled from its facilities in the Niger Delta between 2006 and 2010 were caused by sabotage, theft and illegal refining.
NAN