Ejiofor Alike with agency reports
Barely two days after Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company announced the completion of repairs of the Nembe Creek Trunkline (NCTL), Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) thursday lifted force majeure on exports of Bonny Light crude.
The NCTL and the Trans-Niger Pipeline (TNP) are the two major pipelines used by SPDC and some other producing companies to evacuate crude from the eastern Niger Delta to the Bonny export terminal.
The 600,000 barrels per day capacity, 100-kiloemtre NCTL built by SPDC and inaugurated in 2010, was sold by the oil major to Aiteo in 2015 as part of the divestments of its onshore assets.
But even though SPDC handed over the ownership and operatorship of the asset to the indigenous firm, the multinational company and other producers have continued to utilise the pipeline for crude evacuation.
Shell had declared force majeure on Bonny exports a month ago after Aiteo shut down the pipeline following a reported leak on the facility.
However, SPDC yesterday lifted the force majeure at noon local time (1100 GMT).
As one of Nigeria’s major oil transportation arteries that evacuate crude from the Niger Delta, NCTL has a capacity to move up to 150,000 bpd of oil at Nembe Creek.
It equally has the capacity to evacuate up to 600,000bpd of liquids from the end point at Cawthorne Channel.
