Shell laments loss of 3.2m barrels of crude oil to thieves

From Osakhare Erese Asaba

The authorities of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) have raised the alarm over the loss of 3, 204, 000 barrels of crude oil to thieves in 2017.
Shell Information Director, Mr. Martins Moho who spoke to our reporter in Asaba on Wednesday, said “activities of third party interferences have continued to deal deadly blows on our Nigeria oil and gas production of Shell company, we have lost a total of 3, 204, 000 barrels of crude to oil thieves in 2017”, adding that acts of sabotage on oil and gas infrastructure in the Niger-Delta has impacted on its operations within the year under reviewed.
Noting that illegal refining cause the most environmental damage from oil and gas operations in the Niger-Delta, Mr. Moho said: “irrespective of cause the SPDC JV cleans up immediately areas affected by spills originating from facilities, the spills are sometimes made worse where there are access challenges to incident sites to investigate and shop leaks”.
He said that crude oil theft in pipeline network resulted in a loss of about 9, 000 barrels of oil a day (bbild) in 2017, which is more than the approximate 6, 000 bbild in 2016, but less than 25, 000 bbild in 20915, as the number of sabotage-related spills in 2017 increased to 62 compared to 48 in 2016 but less than 94 in 2015, adding that a key priority for shell would be maintain to achieve the goal of no spill from its operations as shell companies in Nigeria operating under the same standards as all other shell operated ventures globally.
Mr. Moho regretted that in addition to spills caused by criminal activity, there were none operational spills of more than 100 kilograms in volume from shell companies in Nigeria facilities during 2017 three of which were pipelines flow lines infrastructure (lowest in recent times).
“This number is one more than the right spills in 2016, in 2017, the total volume of oil spilled from operational incidents were approximately oil thousand tones, a reduction of approximately 70 percent on the 2016 figure, the volume reduction and fewer spills from pipelines/flow lines can be attributed to continued progress in parenting operational spills such as preventive maintenance of pipe lines and routine inspections” Mr. Moho disclosed.