Christie U. Omonigho
Energy Window International (Media) just learnt that a Nigerian oil firm – the Renaissance Energy has halted production on a line feeding into the Trans Niger oil pipeline, a major oil artery transporting, according to local and international news agencies, crude from onshore oilfields to the Bonny export terminal, following an operational incident reported on Friday.
An environmental rights group according to the agencies said on Thursday that the pipeline burst on May 6 spilling oil into the local B-Dere community in Ogoniland, “the second time such incident affecting the pipeline has happened in two months.
The halted pipeline has travelled through B-Dere community to join the Trans Niger Pipeline.
The oil conglomerate – Renaissance Group who now owns Shell’s former onshore subsidiary that operated the pipeline was also reported to have immediately separated the line and stopped product flowing through the line. “We immediately isolated the pipeline and halted production into the line”, Michael Adande, spokesperson for Renaissance was quoted to have said.
“With co-operation from the B-Dere community, our experts accessed the site, clamped the pipeline and recovered spilled oil, with clean-up preparations now underway,” Adande said.
Renaissance said a team of investigators had confirmed that the incident was an operational one.
Energy Window International (Media) learnt that the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP), with a capacity of around 450,000 barrels per day, is one of two conduits that export Bonny Light crude from Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer.