Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, has announced that it has temporarily shut down the terminal which exports the country’s Bonny Light crude oil, as attacks by militants have reduced production and caused damages to a key pipeline.

With this force majeure by Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), approximately 400,000 bpd of Nigeria’s output has been shut in.

According to the company’s spokesperson, Bamidele Odugbesan, the force majeure took effect from Tuesday, May 10, 2016.

He said this decision is as a result of the leakage that resulted in the closure of the Nembe Creek Trunk line for repairs by the operator, Aiteo Eastern E & P Company Limited.

Shell said the 100 km Nembe Creek Trunk Line, which goes through the delta region to the Bonny terminal, has the capacity to handle about 600,000 bpd.

The spokesman for Aiteo E & P Company, Sola Omole, has said that the cause of the leakage cannot be identified.

“We don’t know if it’s an attack or sabotage,” he said.

The pipeline was damaged in August 2015 with the Trans-Niger pipeline, forcing SPDC to declare force majeure on Bonny Light exports.

However, Tuesday’s was as result of an increase in attacks on oil facilities and infrastructure by militants demanding an impartial share of income for local people in the region.

As a matter of fact, last week the Niger Delta Avengers militant group claimed responsibility for the attack on the Okan offshore facility operated by Chevron.

Past pipeline attacks have stopped shipments from Shell’s Forcados terminal and have made the company withdraw staffs from the Eja facility. The general outcome of these attacks has been to reduce output and production as of Tuesday had dropped to below 1.7 million bpd for the first time since 1994, Vanguard News reports.

Anita Fatunji