Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) has again shut the 180,000bpd Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP), one of the two key pipelines that conveys the nation’s Bonny Light, for export.

This announcement is coming after the company shut the pipeline on June 9, 2016, and later reopened it following the completion of repairs.The 28” TNP transports about 180,000 bopd to the Bonny Export Terminal and is among the gas liquids evacuation infrastructure, vital for continued domestic power generation at the Afam VI power plant, and liquefied gas exports.

According to the spokesperson for SPDC, Bamidele Odugbesan, the shutdown was due to a leak at Bio in Ogoniland, Rivers State.“This is a fresh leak and we are working towards a joint investigation visit to determine the cause. We can’t determine that at this moment, when the pipeline will come on stream because we still have to conduct a joint investigation visit,” he said.

Last week, Shell lifted the force majeure it declared on Bonny Light exports in early May as a result of a leak discovered on the other major pipeline, the Nembe Creek Trunk Line.Nigeria’s oil production has improved to around 1.9 million bpd, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Kachikwu, said.

Exports of the Forcados crude blend, loaded from Shell’s Forcados terminal, have dropped since February after an underwater pipeline attack but Kachikwu has said that the repairs were expected to be completed at the end of July, Punch news reports.

Anita Fatunji