150,000bpd oil pipeline shut for 61 days –Aiteo

Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Development Company Limited has decried the attacks on its facilities, saying the Nembe Creek Trunk Line had been shut down for 61 days this year.

The oil firm said in a statement that it was constrained to alert all stakeholders of the recent spate of sustained attacks on the key national oil infrastructure in its asset base, the NCTL.

The NCTL, which is 100km long and has a capacity of 150,000 barrels per day at Nembe Creek, evacuates crude to the Bonny Crude Oil Terminal.

Aiteo said, “Despite significant investments in security, technology and civic engagements, the destructive pattern of pipeline vandalism still persists.

“These attacks are persistent, sophisticated, and appear timed to inflict debilitating and disruptive effect, all indisputably calculated to decimate Aiteo’s production output in the short if not medium term.

“Regrettably, these vicious and malicious exertions by individuals and faceless entities are having that unavoidable effect.”

According to the statement, in 2019 alone, Joint Investigative Visits, comprising security and regulatory agencies as well as community representatives and Aiteo personnel to ascertain cause of the breaches to the NCTL revealed that 98 per cent of all incidences were attributable to third-party infractions alone.