No flows: after a pipeline leak in Nigeria
Shell pipe leak 'an accident'
Damage to a Shell pipeline in Nigeria that forced the supermajor to shut in about 180,000 barrels per day, was accidental, a Shell source said today.
Shell said there was no timeframe to restart the lost production, caused by a leak discovered last Friday on a section of its Nembe Creek trunk line in Rivers state, in the Niger Delta.
"Preliminary investigations suggest the damage was caused by another company that was doing work in the area. It was not deliberate," said a source at Shell in Port Harcourt, the main city in the Niger Delta, told Reuters.
The source said the local community was refusing to let Shell staff into the area, delaying assessment of the damage and repairs. He did not give any details on what the community's objections were.
An official Shell Nigeria spokesman said the cause of the leak was not yet known, and he was unaware of any problems with the local community.
The latest cutback deepens Shell's supply loss in Nigeria to 653,000 bpd, which is equal to more than a quarter of Nigeria's production in June and is due mostly to militant attacks on its facilities.
"There's no update in terms of timing," said Shell spokeswoman Caroline Wittgen. "The production shut-in is temporary," she added, declining to be more specific.