SPDC: Checking Pipeline Vandalism

The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) last Tuesday, announced the shutdown of production of about 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the 120-kilometre Nembe Creek Trunkline and suspension of crude supply to the all-important Bonny Crude Oil Export Terminal in Rivers State.

While announcing an immediate force majeure on Bonny Light offtake programme in Port Harcourt, Shell said that the decision followed the discovery of a huge crude leak point on the pipeline.

SPDC Managing Director, Mutiu Sunmonu, had earlier raised alarm of a worst environmental disaster looming in the Niger Delta if the Federal Government did not  stop the unprecedented upsurge in crude oil theft and illegal refining activities around the Nembe Creek Trunkline, which supplies 150,000 barrels crude oil per day to Bonny Export Terminal.

Sunmonu said that Shell lost well over 60,000 barrels per day to the thieves between January and February, adding that the situation was the worst nightmare it faced since the Federal Government’s Amnesty Programme commenced three years ago.

The decision of the management of SPDC, though painful, could not have come at a better time because that would give the company the opportunity to investigate the leak, fix leak points on the pipeline, clean-up and remediate the environment before re-opening the supply line to crude flow from the 12 flowstations feeding the NCTL.

The Tide regrets that the declaration of force majeure on Bonny Light would ultimately affect the nation’s ability to meet its crude oil supply obligations to international buyers of Nigerian crude, thereby hurting government’s scarce revenue base at all levels, and by extension, the entire economy, we however, think that the courageous action is necessary to check worsening environmental pollution and plundering of our natural resources by criminal gangs in the region.

We say so because as a people with a common destiny, the spectre of crude oil pollution and devastation reported by the United Nations Environmental Programme in Ogoni would be a child’s play in Kalabari Kingdom if this criminal plundering is allowed to continue unchecked. Apart from the militarisation of the area, the destabilisation of traditional institutions, the local economy,  and the destruction of the people’s most treasured sources of livelihood, the chances of the survival of precious biodiversity and sustainable mangrove vegetation is in peril.

The Tide recalls that one of the major reasons for awarding billions of Naira contracts to secure the pipelines to some former militant leaders was because they know the terrain, the criminal gangs and restive youth well enough to be able to enlist their cooperation and support in guaranteeing a peaceful atmosphere in crude oil production in the region.

Besides, the admission of thousands of ex-militants into the Federal Government’s Amnesty Programme since October, 2009, was intended to herald a new era of sabotage-free crude oil production by the international oil companies. Even so was the wisdom in the deployment of a huge number of members of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) to the creeks to restore law and order in the region.

But with the deterioration of the security situation and rising spate of crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism and illegal refining of Nigerian crude by criminal gangs in the region, it is easy to claim that the measures put in place by government to address this growing threat have failed. This failure is even more worrisome with the increasing and brazen infiltration of the nation’s waterways by huge foreign crude oil vessels which criss-cross the remote creeks to buy stolen crude from criminal gangs in the face of security operatives deployed to stop the illegal business in the region.

This is the more reason  we advise SPDC to sustain the suspension of crude supply to Bonny Export Terminal until the Federal Government courageously tackles illegal refining and crude oil theft frontally.

We know, as a fact, that prominent and wealthy Nigerians, mostly from outside the region, are involved in this bestial business, and a recent security report indicted some of them. The Tide is worried that even after that public indictment, the government is yet to bring those found culpable to book as a veritable means of checking, if not eliminating the scourge.

We challenge the security operatives to bring this brazen onslaught on the Niger Delta environment and people to a permanent stop. Otherwise, we suggest that the region should take every necessary step, including shutting down when necessary, to frustrate this ugly business.