Akwa Ibom announces completion of $33 million gas pipeline project

The Akwa Ibom government in Nigeria has announced the completion of the $33 million gas pipeline project executed in partnership with Septa Energy and targeted at boosting power generation and allied industrial ventures in the state.

While the total cost of the project is estimated at N500 million, the state government invested a total of $33 million for the purchase of the gas to be produced to kick start the investment, while it also spent a total of N800 million for the payment of compensation to landowners along the pipeline corridors from Esit Eket to Ikot Abasi, the industrial hub of the state.

According to the deputy governor, Nsima Ekere, who made this known recently, gas would also be supplied to the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON) currently run by Rusal, a Russian firm.

Ekere, who spoke on behalf of his boss, Governor Godswill Akpabio, restated the commitment of the state government towards the industrial development of the state, having laid a solid foundation by the provision of superior infrastructure needed to drive the process.

The state government had earlier signed a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Septa Energy as part of efforts to provide gas-starved companies in the state with the commodity without bottlenecks.

Shell will pay $410 million to Nigeria's Ogoniland for oil spills

LONDON - In the first case of its kind, a British high court sitting in London has ordered oil major Royal Dutch Shell to pay compensation of potentially more than £250 million (US$410 million) to the Bodo community of Rivers State, after the Anglo-Dutch oil group admitted liability for two spills around the community, following a class-action lawsuit brought in England by the Niger Delta community.

Martyn Day of the London-based law firm Leigh Day & Co. represented the Bodo community and brought the legal claim for damages against Royal Dutch Shell plc. (RDS) and its subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Co. (Nigeria) ltd. (SPDC).

It was the first time the companies faced claims in England for damages resulting from their operations in Nigeria.

The lawsuit was filed in England in April over two oil leaks in 2008 and 2009 that caused devastating damage to the environment and the waterways - in particular to the fishing community of Bodo.

Shell said it was informed of the first leak in early October 2008, but the Bodo community countered that at the time of the leak the company had pumped oil for about six weeks. Even then it took Shell over a month to repair the weld defects in one of its pipelines which had resulted in oil leaks into the community at an estimated rate of 2,000 b/d.

The oil spill caused massive contamination in the creek, rivers and waterways in the Bodo area, as well as the mangroves, causing devastating pollution to the entire area. The damage was estimated to have affected about 20 square km. of Gokana local government area of Rivers State.

A further spill occurred in December 2008, due to equipment failure. It was not capped until February 2009, when greater damage had been inflicted upon the creek, as tens of thousands of barrels of crude oil were pumped into the surrounding rivers and creeks.

The amount of oil spilled is estimated to be as large as the spill that caused the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska in 1989. The size of the coastline affected is equivalent to that damaged by the BP Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

Nigerian government employs 12,000 youths to protect oil pipelines

LAGOS, Nigeria - Nigeria's federal government has employed 12,000 youths from the oil-producing Niger Delta region to provide security for key oil pipelines in their immediate communities, according to a statement from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

In the statement, the government reiterated its resolve to protect the over 5,000 kilometers of crude and petroleum products pipelines across the country. It said the pipeline protection scheme was an integral part of the government's amnesty and rehabilitation program for Niger Delta youths.

Hundreds of people have died from explosions while scooping fuel from pipelines broken by oil thieves in the oil region.

Shell says $1.1 billion Nigerian crude-oil pipeline nearing completion

PORT HARCOURT - Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Nigerian unit said it “is close to completing” a $1.1 billion pipeline that can transport 600,000 b/d of crude oil to its Bonny export terminal on Nigeria’s Atlantic coast.
The 60-mile Nembe Creek pipe collects crude oil from 14 oil pumping stations and is part of a program to replace old pipelines in the Niger River delta, the company said in an e-mailed statement.
Shell, which has replaced more than 1,000 kilometers of pipeline in Nigeria in the last five years, said the improvements “will have only limited impact on oil spills, until widespread oil theft, sabotage and vandalism” abates.
While attacks on pipelines have been reduced since thousands of fighters accepted a government amnesty last year and disarmed, Shell has reported an increase in the activities of oil thieves who bunker or tap crude from pipelines for sale to vessels waiting offshore.

Shell extends force majeure on Nigerian oil exports

PORT HARCOURT - Royal Dutch Shell on June 17 extended force majeure on its Nigerian Forcados oil shipments for the rest of June and all of July, a spokesman said.
Shell's joint venture with state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) imposed the force majeure, which frees the company from contractual obligations, in March following an attack on its trans-Escravos pipeline.
"The joint venture declared force majeure on Forcados offtake program for the remainder of June and for July effective 1800 hours June 16," a Shell spokesman said. The company said investigations were ongoing and that it was taking steps to repair the damaged Forcados pipeline and resume production.

Shell agrees to pay $15.5 million out of court to settle Nigerian death case

NEW YORK - Royal Dutch Shell agreed on June 8 to pay $15.5 million to settle a case accusing it of taking part in human rights abuses in the Niger Delta in the early 1990s.
The settlement came days before the delayed start of a trial in New York that was expected to reveal extensive details of Shell’s activities in the Niger Delta.
The announcement caps a protracted legal battle that began shortly after the death of the Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995. Saro-Wiwa, Shell’s most prominent critic at the time in Nigeria, was hanged by the country’s military regime after protesting the company’s environmental practices in his native Ogoni region.
Despite the settlement, Shell continued to deny any role in the death. It called the settlement a “humanitarian gesture” meant to compensate the plaintiffs, including Saro-Wiwa’s family, for their loss and to cover a portion of their legal fees and costs. Some of the money will go into an educational and social trust fund intended to benefit the Ogoni people.