• Friday, April 26, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

Crude theft: Nigeria sees fresh oil spill in Bayelsa

Although oil theft and pipeline vandalism are not new phenomena in Nigeria, the twin menace has recently assumed a new dimension, depriving Nigeria of taking advantage of current favourable international oil prices.  In all of the turbulence, mostly in the eye of the storm

Following another suspected attack on the Nigerian Agip Oil Company’s Ogboinbiri/OB-OB gas pipeline in Bayelsa on Wednesday, the Federal government of Nigeria has detected another oil spill, according to a report from the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA).

The suspected breach of the facility which occurred on Wednesday, according to Idris Musa, NOSDRA’s Director-General, had resulted in a fire near the towns of Okaka and Azikoro in the state’s Yenagoa Local Government Area.

The incident occurred just one week after the oil company’s gas export feed to the Nigeria Liquefied Gas collection and processing facility was disrupted by vandalism on March 29.

On Thursday, a day following the incident, the agency announced that its investigation had discovered a growing number of sabotage-related oil and gas leaks at Bayelsa oilfields.

Read also: Local operators explore options amid record oil theft

Musa said that three sabotage-related incidents had occurred on oil and gas installations in the state in the previous week, and he recommended operators to beef up their security.

Vandals blew up the plant and it went up in flames a few days after the damaged point on the gas pipeline was clamped, he stated.

The NOSDRA boss said, “There was a gas leak last week from a vandalised OB-OB/Ogboinbiri gas pipeline at Okaka in Bayelsa State.

“The pipeline was repaired but unfortunately re-vandalised again, resulting in a fire. The NAOC is working actively to depressurise the pipeline in order to begin repairs of the pipeline.”