Hector Igbikiowubo
13 April 2009
Lagos — NIGERIA'S crude oil exports faced a fresh threat yesterday as a fire incident on the Shell-operated Bomu manifold has jeopardised the supply of over 170,000 barrels per day of crude oil to the Bonny Oil Terminal. This has great implications for exports commitment and the integrity of the environment, given the impact of spilled volume.
The Bomu manifold is a major pipeline hub that conveys crude oil from the Shell operated joint venture's Eastern division through the Bomu-Bonny Trunk-line to the Bonny Oil Terminal.
A statement released yesterday by Precious Okolobo, spokesman of the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has revealed.
He disclosed that an overfly of the area yesterday morning confirmed the incident, adding however that the cause of the incident remains unknown.
"We have mobilised our fire fighting team and they are preparing to fight the fire. As a precautionary measure, all the feeder flow-stations have been shut down.
"SPDC stopped producing in Ogoniland in 1993. The TNP conveys crude oil from other SPDC and third party facilities," the statement read.
It would be recalled that in 2007, crisis between Shell and youths of the K-Dere community got to a head over the company's failure to keep an earlier promise, which led to the occupation and closure of valves at the Bomu manifold.
The Bomu manifold is a major pipeline complex which acts as a collection centre for crude oil produced from other parts of Shell's Eastern division operations and conveyed through the manifold the Bonny Oil Export Terminal.
Although Okolobo did not state the volume of production affected or spilled as a result of the incident, investigations with Total and Agip revealed they have been forced to shut-in output.
It would be recalled that the Ogonis have had a long-running battle with Shell over perceived environmental neglect and refusal to pay compensation for years of oil and gas exploration and production in the area.
They also accuse the company of complicity in government's hanging of Dr. Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni rights activists in November 1995 and have since prevented Shell from operating in the area.
Although government had also recently hinted it would appoint another oil company to operate Shell's Oil Mining Leases (OML) in Ogoniland, it would appear that efforts in that regard remain stillborn, owing to the measure of clout and influence deployed by the company to prevent this from happening.
Oil production from the Shell operated joint venture has dropped from heights of 1.2 million barrels per day to less than 300,000 barrels per day owing to militancy-inspired crude oil shuts-in.
Following the recent incident, indications are that crude oil production may be down to output from just the Bonga fields and one or two other land locations.
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