MEND Attacks Shell Forcados Pipeline …SPDC Declares Force Majeure

Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has said it attacked Shell Forcados Sub-C pipeline located in the Western Delta.
The militant group in a statement signed by its Spokesman, Gbomo Jomo, said its scuba divers launched the attack at about 3am yesterday.
Gbomo in the statement recalled that MEND had on March 1 sabotaged the pipeline.
Shell had earlier this month closed its Forcados crude oil export terminal because of an undersea pipeline leak.
The pipeline has the capacity to handle 400,000 barrels of crude a day reportedly more than a fifth of the 2.2 billion barrels produced daily in Nigeria.
MEND said its fighters were successful in causing further damage to the ongoing repairs on the terminal.
It said the fighters inflicted “the heaviest toll ever on the oil industry since the commencement of its ‘Hurricane Exodus.”
MEND further claimed responsibility for the attack on the Agip crude oil and gas pipelines in Ikarama Oil Fields located in Bayelsa State.
Holes were reportedly drilled on pipelines belonging to the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) in Ikarama community, Yenagoa.
The pipelines in Ikarama oil fields were said to be spewing oil from three points into the environment after the attack.
Ikarama is known as a hotbed for pipeline sabotage in the Niger Delta region with Agip raising the alarm that 90 per cent of the spills that had occurred so far in the area were the handiwork of oil thieves.
Two of the compromised spots were said to be discharging crude oil while the other point was said to be spewing gas.
MEND’s statement said: “At about 0300Hrs today (Thursday, March 27, 2014), scuba divers from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) revisited the Shell Forcados Sub-C pipeline in the Western Delta which we had sabotaged earlier on Saturday, March 01, 2014.
“We were successful in causing further damage to the on-going repair works, inflicting the heaviest toll ever on the oil industry since the commencement of ‘Hurricane Exodus’.
“The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) also takes responsibility for the Thursday, March 20, 2014 attack on the Agip crude oil and gas pipelines in Ikarama Oil Fields located in Bayelsa State.”
Meanwhile, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) says it had declared force majeure on exports of the Forcados oil grade due to a pipeline leak caused by oil theft in Delta State.
OPEC member Nigeria is Africa’s top oil producer although it rarely pumps at full capacity due to rampant oil theft, costing the country billions of dollars.
“A statement by Shell spokesperson, Precious Okolobo, said that unknown persons had installed a crude theft point on the line in water depth of about eight metre.”
A “slight sheen” was visible near the line, it added.
The firm said on March 14 that it had suspended third-party exports of Nigeria’s Forcados grade.
Ship-tracking data showed that one Suezmax tanker has been in the vicinity of the Forcados terminal since March 9, indicating a waiting period of at least two weeks.
Shell did not give a timeframe for repairs, adding only that it was seeking to reopen the export line as soon as possible.

Delegation from United Kingdom Hydrographic Office with members of Nigeria Hydrographic Society, during a stakeholders forum in Lagos, yesterday