Nigeria fails in bid to restore 300,000bpd oil export via TNP
Africa’s most populous nation is in throes of an acute fx crisis
Desperate attempts by Nigeria to revive the crucial Trans Niger crude oil Pipeline, TNP and raise oil export by as much as three hundred thousand barrels a day, has suffered a massive setback, BusinessDay has learnt.
Two weeks ago, oil company chiefs and senior officers of the state oil company NNPC Limited set out to begin the process of passing crude oil through the massive pipeline after nearly a year of being abandoned. The pipeline is capable of earning an additional $900,000 of oil proceeds for Nigeria every month and help mitigate the country’s desperate FX shortage.
BusinessDay learnt that about two weeks ago, a decision reached was to begin the restoration in phases with crude oil producers including Shell and Heirs Holdings Oil and Gas limited willing to start controlled injection of oil through the pipeline in staggered volumes.
The hope was that government security chiefs can then be better advised on the most vulnerable links along the pipeline. The Bodo community was the last of such villages where salvage teams were able to enter to effect repairs along the pipeline. It was learnt that leaders of the community gave the government conditions for allowing technical teams to enter the village to fix the pipeline.
According to one senior oil chief involved, “initial recovery factor, RF was in the region of 82% but this suddenly collapsed to under 55% between Monday and Tuesday this week.”
For weeks, water was passed through the pipeline and the recovery rate achieved topped 90%. It is now suspected that multiple leakages have developed as the oil thieves have simply moved to new locations.
The oil producers are now so frustrated they do not hope the pipeline will become available till early next year at best. They also suspect high level collusion by some in government.
One senior official of an oil company told BusinessDay Tuesday night, “we cannot continue to spend huge resources drilling oil when we are earning nothing from the effort.”
Last month, the Group General Manager of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Bala Wunti announced that technical teams of the NNPC had concluded the clamping of the damaged Pipeline (TNP) in the Niger Delta.
“Today, we achieved another great milestone on my second trip (within a week) to Bodo community. The faulty section of the Trans Niger Pipeline was clamped, and the spillage successfully stopped. With the completion of repairs, environmental remediation will commence in earnest.
“We will all go to bed feeling better tonight, knowing that the oil spill into the Bodo community has successfully been contained and that NNPC trust rebuilding efforts with our beloved host community has fully taken shape and paying off.“
All the parties have respected the outcome of the open discussions that led to this moment. In the coming days, not only will the Bodo community indigenes live in a cleaner and healthier environment, but the nation will also receive much-needed relief.
