The rise in vandalism in critical Nigerian economic infrastructure hit a major level as Italian oil and gas development company, Eni, announced an attack on its 24-inch gas line at Okaka in Yenagoa, which forced the company to declare a force majeure’.
This was disclosed in a statement by Eni, the Italian parent company of Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) forcing it to declared a force majeure at the Bonny Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG)
Vandalism in the past months has affected Nigeria’s electricity distribution and oil production value chains. Production in some crude wells have been reduced to as low as 20% of output.
What Eni is saying
According to a statement by Eni, the incident on the gas pipeline operated by its Nigerian unit, NAOC, has cut gas export feed to NLNG by five Million Standard Cubic Meter per day (MMSCM/d).
The company stated that it shut in all gas wells that feed the line to douse pressure and pave way for repairs which were completed on April 8.
The company said, “A gas leak incident due to third-party interference occurred on 5th April along 24’ Ogbainbiri to Obiafu/Obrikom Gas pipeline at Okaka in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.”
It added that all wells conferring in that pipeline were immediately shut in and line depressurised whilst the area was cordoned off for safety reasons.
“The relevant government regulatory agencies and the community were promptly notified. A joint investigation visit confirmed sabotage.
“Deferred production is estimated at about 5 Million Standard Cubic Meter per day of gas and the repair job was completed on 8th April.
“Production ramp up will take some days. Force majeure has been declared at Bonny NLNG.
“This is the second hacksaw cut in the area within few days, following a previous event that occurred on the same pipeline on 28th March,” they added.
What you should know
- Nigeria’s energy infrastructure has been a major hotspot for vandals and terrorist attacks in the past 3 years as a recent report by socioeconomic research firm, SBM intelligence revealed that report revealed that from Q3 2019 to Q1 2022, Nigerian power generation plants suffered 6 attacks in the state of Borno alone.
- Last Month, Austin Avuru, founding MD/CEO of Seplat Energy and Executive Chairman AA Holdings warned that Nigeria’s oil production reached an emergency critical status. He stated that some oil production wells don’t get to see 80% of production making it to the terminals due to oil theft.
- Coming after, Nairametrics reported that Tony Elumelu, Chairman of UBA Banking Group and Heirs Holdings stated that the reason Nigeria cannot meet its crude oil production quota and benefit from high oil prices is due to theft. citing the Bonny terminal oil theft that should be receiving over 200k barrels of crude oil daily, instead it receives less than 3,000 barrels.
- The Nigerian Government has blamed the recent attacks on its power infrastructure on vandalism attacks, as the Power Ministry recently blamed the last grid collapse on an act of vandalism on a transmission tower on the Odukpani-Ikot Ekpene 330KV double circuit transmission.